Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

A happy family is but an earlier heaven.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

I think it’s a very good thing to leave your country and look at it from afar.

What’s the use of happiness? It can’t buy you money.

A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

The child inside of you knows how to take things as they come, how to deal most effectively and happily with everything and everyone it encounters on this planet. If you can recapture that childlike essence of your being, you can stay ‚forever young at heart.‘

Material things are delightful, but they’re not important.

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.

Fortunately, we have help from the media. I have to say this: I’m very grateful for the support and kindness that we’ve gotten. People have respected their privacy and in that way, I think, you know, no matter what people may feel about my husband’s policies or what have you, they care about children and that’s been good to see.

There are no such things as Flowers there are only gladdened Leaves.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.

You know when you’re young and you see a play in high school, and the guys all have gray in their hair and they’re trying to be old men and they have no idea what that’s like? It’s just that stupid the other way around.

I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.

It’s amazing if you just listen to people. They tell you all the time things that you can do for them, without even realizing what they’re doing. I’ve learned to take notice of those things and if it’s something that I feel God wants me to do, then I try to do that to add joy to their life.

A man will speedily sit down and sympathize with a friend’s griefs, but if he sees him honored and esteemed, he is apt to regard him as a rival and does not so readily rejoice with him. This ought not to be; without effort, we ought to be happy in our brother’s happiness.

When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.

Players today moan about the number of games, but when you’re young, you can’t play enough.

We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

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

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‚I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,‘ and I actually meant it.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

Most of our lives aren’t that exciting, but the drama is still going on in the small details.

Over the years, all my coaches and my teammates have contributed a lot to shape my career. I can never forget their contribution and help.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.

I was a chemistry major, but I’m always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I’ve brought scientific thinking to literature. There’s been very little gratitude for this.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

I am criticised for not celebrating my goals enough. I am very happy from within, very calm. I just don’t celebrate. I celebrate inside.

I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.

How much better it would be if all could be more aware of God’s providence and love and express that gratitude to Him.

You might not have the things you want, but if you check carefully, you got all you need.

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us – dreamers and indolent… It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich – these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self?

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.