Gordon B. Hinckley Quotes

If we live a self-directed, self-motivated, self-centered life, always needing to get our own way, then we're going to be miserable. In fact, many times we believe it's our problems that are making us unhappy when, in reality, it's because we're focused on ourselves!

It took cancer to realize that being self-centered is not the way to live. The answer is to try and help others.

The more we think of others, the happier we are. The more we think of ourselves, the more suffering we feel.

Action for Happiness encourages each of us to live more compassionately and put the happiness of others at the centre of our lives. This is the path to lasting peace and happiness

I start every day by wanting more for others than I do for myself. I think that is how God works, and that is how I think we have to work.

One can write, think and pray exclusively of others; dreams are all egocentric.

Many people are unhappy and are not experiencing life to its fullest because they’ve closed their hearts to compassion, they are motivated by only what they want and what they think they need. They rarely do anything for anybody else unless they have an ulterior goal in mind. They are self-involved and self-centered.

I think service to others is the real key to winning our own personal freedom and the road to our own happiness, our own personal contentment and fulfillment.

The way I ought to measure my life is in terms of the others I helped to become better and happier people. That's the biggest thing to think about if you're not happy.

It took me a while and a lot of hard times to figure out my purpose, I am so happy with my life. I just want to help make other people happy, too.

As my parents taught me, by both words and deeds, a life of public services is as much a gift to the person who serves as it is to those he's serving.

The secret to greatness is in serving everyone else.

A happy life is a life for others.

To me it seems that to give happiness is a far nobler goal that to attain it: and that what we exist for is much more a matter of relations to others than a matter of individual progress: much more a matter of helping others to heaven than of getting there ourselves.

Youth ends when egotism does; maturity begins when one lives for others.

I don't believe in religion. I believe the example of Christ. I believe in the example of a perfect human being that if you can live for other people away from yourself you will be happy. If you live for yourself you will be unhappy and then you will not be able to sleep or do anything else... finally. I think insofar, and I really believe this, insofar as people do live with the other fellow [God] in mind, they have to be happy you know? Because it raises you up.

The hardest work you and I will ever do is to put off our selfishness. It is heavy lifting!

I think that people will find a tremendous joy and fulfillment in service to other human beings, and that often this is what is missing in their lives.

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one's self up is to help someone else.

If you only think about yourself - how much money can I make, what can I buy, how nice is my house, what kind of fancy car do I have? - over the long term, I think, you get bored. I think your life becomes diminished. The way to live a full life is to think: What can I do for others?

Learning to love unselfishly is not an easy task. It runs counter to our self-centered nature.

Absorption in things other than self is the secret of a happy life.

I have learned that it is by serving that we learn how to serve. When we engaged in the service of our fellowmen, not only do our deeds assist them but we put our own problems in fresher perspective. When we concern ourselves more with others, there is less time to be concerned with ourselves

In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others.