"No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make."

"Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes."

"We'd just shared the last beer and slung the empty can out the window at a stop sign and were just waiting back to get the feel of the day, swimming in that kind of tasty drowsiness that comes over you after a day of going hard at something you enjoy doing -- half sunburned and half drunk and keeping awake only because you wanted to savor the taste as long as you could."

"If everything really does get better, the way everyone claims, then happiness should be graphable. But that's crap, because better isn't quantifiable."

"Happiness is a myth. It was invented to make us buy new things."

"Hapiness is as exclusive as a butterfly, and you must never pursue it. If you stay very still, it may come and settle on your hand. But only briefly. Savour those moments, for they will not come in your way very often."

"Why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the Universe? Let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. Let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication."

"We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it."

"Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it."

"Happiness is such a fragile thing, isn't it? So easily burst, like a bubble blown by a child, and always on the verge of being carried away."

"I NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE POINT OF BEING SADWHEN I COULD CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY"

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."

"Happiness wasn't a mystical place to be reached or won--some bright terrain beyond the boundary of misery, a paradise waiting for them to find it--but something to carry doggedly with you through everything, as humble and ordinary as your gear and supplies."

"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost."

"Happiness is like those palaces in fairytales whose gates are guarded by dragons: We must fight in order to conquer it."

"Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price."

"...is ignorance bliss, I don't know, but it's so painful to think, and tell me, what did thinking ever do for me, to what great place did thinking ever bring me? I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it."

"Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside."

"The big reason why folks leave a small town,' Rant used to say, 'is so they can moon over the idea of going back. And the reason they stay put is so they can moon about getting out.'Rant meant that no one is happy, anywhere."

"That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep."

"As I focus on diligent joy, I also keep remembering a simple idea my friend Darcey told me once -- that all the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people. Not only in the big global Hitler-'n'-Stalin picture, but also on the smallest personal level. Even in my own life, I can see exactly where my episodes of unhappiness have brought suffering or distress or (at the very least) inconvenience to those around me. The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people."

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."