20 Great Quotes About Happiness

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”

—Albert Einstein

Based on the high readership and strong comments regarding my recent e-columns about physician stress and unhappiness, I believe that I’ve hit on a very sore but serious topic.

Today’s doctors are some very gloomy guys and gals. Since I follow the medical profession with more than a passing interest, I can’t say I blame them.

Government interference, mounting regulations, less time with patients, technology overload, stagnant incomes, rising practice costs, declining prestige, and a changing medical marketplace are just a few of the causes of their misery.

What is happiness? Each doctor, of course, must find that within themselves. To get your heart and mind moving in a useful direction, here are 20 very telling quotes on the matter:

1. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”

—Dale Carnegie

2. “Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”

—Henry James

3. “Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.”

—Roy Goodman

4. “Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.”

—Walter Anderson

5. “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”

—Mark Twain

6. “Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”

—Dennis Wholey

7. “Happiness is not a goal; it’s a by-product.”

—Eleanor Roosevelt

8. “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”

—Eric Hoffer

9. “People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.”

—Anton Chekhov

10. “Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.”

—Frank Tyger

11. “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”

—Joseph Addison

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

—Charles Dickens

13. “It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.”

—Lucille Ball

14. “Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur every day than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”

—Benjamin Franklin

15. “The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”

—Epictetus

16. “Success at the highest level comes down to one question: Can you decide that your happiness can come from someone else's success?"

—Bill Walton

17. “A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.”

—Helen Keller

18. “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.”

— Andrew Carnegie

19. “To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”

—Bertrand Russell

20. “Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

—Buddha