Retirement for many brings happiness, but while happiness can be characterized by feelings of joy, gratitude, and contentment, how we achieve this feeling is entirely unique. For some, being happy can seem like a fleeting concept, a fading feeling brought on by success or good fortune. For others, cultivating happiness from within is the worthiest pursuit, whether it’s by slowing down and appreciating the present moment, developing a meditation practice, or reconnecting to your purpose. To quote the German-Swiss poet Herman Hesse, “Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.”
Many of history’s
greatest minds, from the ancient Greeks to modern thinkers, have meditated on
the root of happiness and made some striking observations that may make you
stop and think. Through these words of wisdom, a common thread to happiness
just might be found — or perhaps many different threads can be weaved together
to form your own personal tapestry. Below is some food for thought on
happiness.
The foolish man
seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. – James
Oppenheim
Happiness is when
what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. – Mahatma Gandhi
Make up your minds
that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. –
Pericles
Happiness is not a
goal…it’s a by-product. – Eleanor Roosevelt
I don’t want a job.
I have eight acres of fields outside the city wall, enough for vegetables and
grain. I also have an acre and a half of farmland nearby, which gives me enough
silk and hemp. Strumming my zithers is enough to give me pleasure, studying Tao
with you is enough to make me happy. I don’t want a job. – Yan Hui, a disciple
of Confucius
Happiness is not
something readymade. It comes from your own actions.
– Dalai Lama
We tend to forget
that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but
rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. – Frederick Koenig
Don’t wait around
for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make
yourself. – Alice Walker
Sometimes your joy
is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your
joy. – Thich Nhat Hanh
Happiness depends
upon ourselves. – Aristotle
Those who are not
looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are
searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for
others. – Martin Luther King Jr.
Many persons have a
wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through
self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. – Helen Keller
Success is getting
what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.
– W. P. Kinsella
The happiness of
your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
– Marcus Aurelius
The present moment
is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. –
Thich Nhat Hanh
All happiness
depends on courage and work. – Honoré de Balzac
True happiness is
to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. – Seneca
Happiness in this
world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it
leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object,
and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of
it. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Happiness is
something that multiplies when it is divided. – Paulo Coelho
Genuine happiness
can only be achieved when we transform our way of life from the unthinking
pursuit of pleasure to one committed to enriching our inner lives, when we
focus on 'being more' rather than simply having more. – Daisaku Ikeda
Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. – Benjamin Franklin
Happiness exists on
earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the
harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.
– José Martí
Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends. – Epicurus
The only way to be truly happy is to make others happy. – William Carlos Williams
Many people think excitement is happiness…. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace. – Thich Nhat Hanh
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