happy

Adults talk about being happy because largely they are not.

—Winterson,Jeanette

The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

and Ireally hopeno white person ever has causetowrite about me because they never understand Black love is Black wealth and they'll probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that all the while I was quite happy

—Giovanni,Nikki in full Yolande CorneliaGiovanni,Jr

That all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

Anyone happy in this age and place Is daft or corrupt. Better to abdicate From a material and spiritual terrain Fit only for barbarians.

—Fuller, Roy Broadbent

The time-honored bread-sauce of the happy ending.

—James, Henry

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

—Updike,John Hoyer

I die happy.

—Fox, CharlesJames

Qu'il est difficile d'e"  tre content de quelqu'un! How difficult it is to be happy with someone!

—La Bruye'  re,Jean de

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

   Eisenhower has†a magic in American politics that is peculiarly his: he makes people happy.

—White,Theodore H(arold)

Es gibt nur einen Irrtum, und es ist der, dass wir dasind, um glu«  cklich zu sein. There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy.

—Schopenhauer, Arthur

Forgive and be happy. That is the ancient secret†the only wisdom ever to be attained.

—Prather, Hugh

Lever matin n'est point bonheur; Boire matin est le meilleur. Getting up in the morning does not make you happy; Drinking in the morning is the best.

—Rabelais, Fran c° ois

Was man auch sagen mag, der glu«  cklichsteAugenblick des Glu« c klichen ist doch der seines Einschlafens wie der unglu«  cklichste des Unglu«  cklichen der seines Erwachens. Whatever we may say, the happiest moment of the happy man is that of his falling asleep, just as the unhappiest moment of the unhappy man is that of his awakening.

—Schopenhauer, Arthur

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs Aboutthelilting houseand happyasthegrasswasgreen.

—Thomas, Dylan Marlais

Happy Days are Here Again.

—Yellen,Jack

   All happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

—Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich

Happy, happy, happy, pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair.

—Dryden,John

   Youask ifthey werehappy.Thisisnot a characteristicof a European. To be contentedöthat's for the cows.

—Chanel, Gabrielle known as  Coco

Happy is the country which has no history, and happier still is that musical comedyabout which one can find nothing to say.

—Agate,James

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that gettethunderstanding.For themerchandise of it isbetter than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the thingsthoucanst desirearenottobe compared untoher. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Beatus vir qui timet Dominum, in mandatis ejus volet nimis! Happy is the man who fears the Lord, who is only too willing to follow his orders.

—Bible (Vulgate)

Lo, children are an heritage of the L: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

—Bible (Old Testament)

The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay, 'Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand Between a splendid and a happy land.

—Goldsmith, Oliver

Heureux, qui comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage, Ou comme cestuy la'   qui conquit la toison, Et puis est retourne¤  , plein d'usage et raison, Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son a"  ge! Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has taken a wondrous journey Or has won the Golden Fleece, And then returns home wise and useful To live in his homeland the rest of his days.

—Bellay,Joachim du

The world owes all its onward impulse to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.

—Hawthorne, Nathaniel

   Simply seek happiness, and you are not likely to find it. Seek to create and love without regard to your happiness,and youwill likely behappymuchofthetime.

—Peck, M(organ) Scott

Happy those early days when I Shined in my Angel-infancy. Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race, Or taught my soul to fancy aught But a white, celestial thought; When yet I had not walked above A mile or two from my first love, And looking back (at that short space) Could see a glimpse of His bright face. When on some gilded cloud or flower My gazing soul would dwell an hour And in those weaker glories spy Some shadows of eternity.

—Vaughan, Henry

If we ought not to fear mortal truth, still less should we dread scientific truth. In the first place it can not conflict with ethics† But if science is feared, it is above all because it can give no happiness† Man, then, can not be happy through science buttoday he canmuch less be happy without it.

—Poincare¤  , (Jules) Henri

Then the world seemed none so bad, And I myself a sterling lad; And down in lovely muck I've lain, Happy till I woke again.

—Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)

Nessun maggior dolore, Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria. There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. 252

—Dante Alighieri originally Durante

   Thou has been called,O Sleep! the friend of Woe, But 'tis the happy who have called thee so.

—Southey, Robert

I have been very happy†serving in a state of life to which I had never expected to be called.

—1st Earl

How happy I could be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!

—Gay,John

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during whichthe conditionof thehumanrace was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.

—Gibbon, Edward

Si la vie est mise¤  rable, elle est pe¤  nible a'   supporter; si elle est heureuse, il est horrible de la perdre. L'un revient a' l'autre. If life ismiserable, it is difficultto endure; if it ishappy, it is horrible to lose.They come to the same thing.

—La Bruye'  re,Jean de

   Thosewhotalk most abouttheblessings of marriageand the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the claim were broken and the prisoners were left free to choose, the whole social fabric would flyasunder.Youcan't havetheargument both ways.Ifthe prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?

—Shaw, George Bernard

If you are as happy, my dear Sir, on entering this house as I am on leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in the country.

—Buchanan,James

Well, I've had a happy life.

—Hazlitt,William

When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay To keep me happy all the day.

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

Let us all be happy, and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with.

—Ward, Artemus pseudonym of  Charles Farrar Browne

And you have only to look these happy couples in the face, to see they have never been in love, or in hate, or in any other high passion all their days.

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

Not to admire, is all the art I know, To make men happy, and to keep them so.

—Pope, Alexander

Marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

   There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, thanthemanwho has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it.

—Hemingway, Ernest Millar

It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

No one can be perfectly free until all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.

—Spencer, Herbert

On n'est jamais si malheureux qu'on croit, ni si heureux qu'on espe'  re. One is never as unhappyas one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.

—La Rochefoucauld, Fran c° ois, 6th Duc de

   When a felon's not engaged in his employment Or maturing his felonious little plans His capacity for innocent enjoyment Is just as great as any honest man'sö Ah! When constabulary duty's to be done A policeman's lot is not a happy one.

—Gilbert, Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck)

Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.

—Thompson, Hunter S(tockton)

   Twickenham is one of those happy places which is not burdened with a history. 858

—Thorne,James

You will see Coleridgeöhe who sits obscure In the exceeding lustre and the pure Intense irradiation of a mind, Which, through its own internal lighting blind, Flags wearily through darkness and despairö A cloud-encircled meteor of the air, A hooded eagle among blinking owlsö You will see Huntöone of those happy souls Which are the salt of the earth, and without whom This world would smell like what it isöa tomb.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Vous savez qu'on doit se sentir heureux.Tous les vrais e¤  crivains ont e¤  prouve¤   ce sentiment. Quand on ne l'e¤  prouve pas, je suis oblige¤   de vous en avertir, c'est mauvais signe. You know that one should feel happy. All thetrue writers have experienced this feeling.When one does not experience it, I am obliged to tell you that it is a bad sign.

—Sarraute, Nathalie

So have I loitered my life away, reading books, looking at pictures, going to plays, hearing, thinking, writing on what pleased me best. I have wanted only one thing to make me happy, but wanting that have wanted everything.

—Hazlitt,William

Il y aura toujours un chien perdu quelque part qui m'empe"  chera d'e"  tre heureux. There will always be a lost dog somewhere that will prevent me being happy.

—Anouilh,Jean

  Sob, heavy world, Sob as you spin Mantled in mist, remote from the happy.

—Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)

Il y a une espe'  ce de honte d'e"  tre heureux a'   la vue de certaines mise'  res. There is a type of shame which comes from being happy at another's distress.

—La Bruye'  re,Jean de

But if marriage be such a blessed state, how comes it, may you say, that there are so few happy marriages? Now in answer to this, is it not to be wondered that so few succeed, we should rather be surprized to find so manydo, considering how imprudently menengage, the motive they act by, and the very strange conduct they observe throughout.

—Astell, Mary

The reason why so few marriages are happy, is, because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.

—Swift,Jonathan

   She's private to herself, and best of knowledge Whom she will make so happy as to sigh for.

—Beaumont, Francis

I've been to the mountain top. I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land.I may not get there with you, but Iwant you to know tonight that we as a people will get to thepromised land.So,I'mhappy tonight.Mine eyeshave seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

—King, Martin LutherJr

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

—Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)

Faster and faster it rolled, with me running after it bent low, gritting my teeth, and I found myself doubled over and rolling down the street head over heels, one complete somersault after another like a bagel and strangely happy with myself.

—Ignatow, David

   Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it; but if they think with themselves what other men thinkof them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

This is the happy warrior, This is he.

—Read, Sir Herbert Edward

What objects are the fountains Of thy happy strain? What fields, or waves, or mountains? What shapes of sky or plain? What love of thine own kind? What ignorance of pain? 784

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

—Keats,John

Le dix-neuvie'  me sie'  cle est grand, mais le vingtie'  me sera heureux. Thenineteenth century isgreat, butthetwentiethwill be happy.

—Hugo,Victor Marie

Nature meant me A wife, a silly, harmless, household dove, Fond without art, and kind without deceit; But Fortune, that has made a mistress of me, Has thrust me out to the wide world, unfurnish'd Of falsehood to be happy.

—Dryden,John

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

—Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)

   Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy When I am happy I live and despise writing For my Muse this cannot but be dispiriting.

—Smith, Stevie (Florence Margaret)

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

—Shaw, George Bernard

Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?öCome, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.

—Thackeray,William Makepeace

Nam in omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum est genus infortunii, fuisse felicem. In all adversity of fortune, the most wretched kind is once to have been happy. 138

—Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus