It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.

I’ve run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people’s support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

If we chew every morsel of our food, in that way we become grateful, and when you are grateful, you are happy.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

I try to be the same person I was yesterday.

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

A merry heart doeth good like medicine.

With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in.

I’m living a dream I never want to wake up from.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.

If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.

The more centuries that I am able to score, the happier I will be.

If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

These things bring you to reality as to how fragile you are; at the same moment you are doing something that nobody else is able to do. The same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile.

Heroism is accessible. Happiness is more difficult.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.

You’re going to die. You’re going to be dead. It could be 20 years, it could be tomorrow, anytime. So am I. I mean, we’re just going to be gone. The world’s going to go on without us. All right now. You do your job in the face of that, and how seriously you take yourself you decide for yourself.

I am happy and proud to play for my country and my club Mohun Bagan.

I think I have a dualistic nature.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.

It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.

Marriage is the most wonderful thing ever.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

What it’s like to be me? You know, it’s good to be me. My life is good.

It’s easy to forget who you are.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

My belief is that we were put into this world of wonders and beauty with a special ability to appreciate them, in some cases to have the fun of taking a hand in developing them, and also in being able to help other people instead of overreaching them and, through it all, to enjoy life – that is, to be happy.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there’s time, the Bastard Time.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.