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Happiness: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
O, that her hand, In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense Hard as the palm of ploughman.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 55.
They may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand.— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 35.
Without the bed her other fair hand was, On the green coverlet; whose perfect white Show'd like an April daisy on the grass, With pearly sweat, resembling dew of night. n. Lucrece. L.
'Twas a jolly old pedagogue, long ago, Tall and slender, and sallow and dry; His form was bent, and his gait was slow, His long thin hair was white as snow, But a wonderful twinkle shone in his eye. And he sang every night as he went to bed, "Let us be happy down here below; The living should live, though the dead be dead," Said the jolly old pedagogue long ago.— GEORGE ARNOLD — The Jolly Old
Pedagogue. Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.— HOSEA BALLOU — MS. Sermons.
To have been happy, madame, adds to calamity.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER — The Fair Maid of the Inn. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 250.
Priestly was the first (unless it was Beccaria) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth-that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.— BENTHAM- — Vol. X. P. 142. See also
Beccaria's introduction to Essay on Crimes and Punishments. *** all who joy would win Must share it, -Happiness was born a twin.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto II. St. 172.
S. Oh, Mirth and Innocence! Oh, Milk and Water! Ye happy mixtures of more happy days!— BYRON — Beppo. St. 80.
O, why has happiness so short a day.— BARRY CORNWALL — A Sicilian Story.
Dedicatory Sonnet. If solid happiness we prize, Within our breast this jewel lies, And they are fools who roam; The world has nothing to bestow, From our own selves our bliss must flow, And that dear hut, -our home.— NATHANIEL COTTON — The Fireside.
Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that hast survived the Fall!— COWPER — Task. Bk. III. L. 41.
Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose. ر— COWPER — Table Talk. L. 246.
Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own.— GOETHE — Distichs.
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd. Our own felicity we make or find.— GOLDSMITH — The Traveller. L. 431.
Now happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature: it is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool.— GOOD — The Book of Nature. Series III.
Lecture VII. The loss of wealth is loss of dirt, As sages in all times assert; The happy man's without a shirt.— JOHN HEYWOOD — Be Merry Friends.
And there is ev'n a happiness That makes the heart afraid.— HOOD — Ode to Melancholy.
A sound Mind in a sound Body, is a short but full description of a happy State in this World.— LOCKE — Thoughts Concerning Education.
The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken.— LONGFELLOW — Kavanagh. Ch. XIII.
To be strong Is to be happy!— LONGFELLOW — Christus. The Golden Legend. Pt. II. L. 731.
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, We are happy now because God wills it.— LOWELL — The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Pt. I. L. 61.
And feel that I am happier than I know.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. VIII. L. 282.
No eye to watch and no tongue to wound us, All earth forgot, and all heaven around us.— MOORE — Come o'er the Sea.
Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing ourselves to be happy, it is inevitable that we never become so.— BLAISE PASCAL — Thoughts. Ch. V. Sec. I.
Said Scopas of Thessaly, "But we rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things."— PLUTARCH — Morals. Vol. II.
Of the Love of Wealth. Fix'd to no spot is Happiness sincere; 'Tis nowhere to be found, or ev'rywhere; 'Tis never to be bought, but always free.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. IV. L. 15.
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess, If all are equal in their happiness; But mutual wants this happiness increase, All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. IV. L. 53.
Oh happiness! our being's end and aim! Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy name; That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die.— S. POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. IV. L. 1.
To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines, Where slumber abbots purple as their wines.— POPE — The Dunciad. Bk. IV. L. 301.
Ye gods, annihilate but space and time, And make two lovers happy.— POPE — Martinus Scriblerus on the Art of Sinking in Poetry. Ch. XI.
Happiness lies in the consciousness we have of it, and by no means in the way the future keeps its promises.— GEORGES SAND — Handsome Lawrence. Ch. III.
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. Midsummer-Night's Dream. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 76. But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 47.
Ye seek for happiness-alas, the day! Ye find it not in luxury nor in gold, Nor in the fame, nor in the envied sway For which, O willing slaves to Custom old, Severe taskmistress! ye your hearts have sold.— SHELLEY — Revolt of Islam. Canto XI. St. 17.
Magnificent spectacle of human happiness.— SYDNEY SMITH — America. Edinburgh
Review, July, 1824. Mankind are always happier for having been happy; so that if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.— SYDNEY SMITH — Lecture on Benevolent
Affections. Be happy, but be happy through piety.— MADAME DE STAËL — Corinne. Bk. XX. Ch. III.
For it stirs the blood in an old man's heart; And makes his pulses fly, To catch the thrill of a happy voice, And the light of a pleasant eye.— N. P. WILLIS — Saturday Afternoon. St. 1.
We're charm'd with distant views of happiness, But near approaches make the prospect less.— THOS. YALDEN — Against Enjoyment. L. 23.
True happiness ne'er entered at an eye; True happiness resides in things unseen.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night VIII. L. 1,021.
Non potest quisquam beate degere, qui se tantum intuetur, qui omnia ad utilitates suas convertit; alteri vivas oportet, si vis tibi vivere. No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. Thou must live for another, if thou wishest to live for thyself.— SENECA — Epistolæ Ad Lucilium.
Le bonheur des méchants comme un torrent s'écoule. The happiness of the wicked flows away as a torrent.— RACINE — Athalie. II. 7.
Le bonheur semble fait pour être partagé. Happiness seems made to be shared.— CORNEILLE — Notes par Rochefoucauld.
On n'est jamais si heureux, ni si malheureux, qu'on se l'imagine. We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maximes.
Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille? Where can we better be than in the bosom of our family?— DU LORENS — Lucile.
Das beste Glück, des Lebens schönste Kraft Ermattet endlich. The highest happiness, the purest joys of life, wear out at last.— GOETHE — Iphigenia auf Tauris. IV. 5. 9.