Wilhelm von Humboldt Quotes

What is called happiness is an abstract idea, composed of various ideas of pleasure; for he who has but a moment of pleasure is not a happy man, in like manner that a moment of grief constitutes not a miserable one.

Happiness is a good that nature sells us.

Happiness. We're tearing our hair out to try to find a definition of it, for heaven's sake. Is it joy? People will tell you that it isn't, that joy is a fleeting emotion, a moment of happiness, which is always welcome, mind you. And then what about pleasure, huh? Oh, yes, that's easy, everybody knows what that is, but there again it doesn't last. But is happiness not the sum total of lots of small joys and pleasures, huh?

Happiness is a hardy annual.

Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary.

Maybe happiness too is a metaphor invented on a day of boredom

Happiness is unrepented pleasure.

I don't know what happiness is. I have periods of feeling joyous and peaceful and excited about what I'm doing, but I am also frequently very sad.

I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition.

I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.

Happiness: being able to forget or, to express in a more learned fashion.

People can be happy while they are going through great pain and adversity. There's no pleasure evident in their external lives yet they are content on the inside. And conversely, tons of people are surrounded by pleasure (fast cars, nice homes, great clothes) but there is no joy within. So choose to be happy.

If by happiness you mean instead an ordinary contentment, then yes - I'm fairly contented. Not satisfied - contented.

Happiness is at once the best, the noblest, and the pleasantest of things.

Happiness is a man's greatest achievement; it is the response of his total personality to a productive orientation toward himself and the world outside.

I've come to believe that seeking happiness is not a frivolous pursuit. It's honorable and necessary. And most people forget even to thing about it.

Work saves us from melancholy. Pleasure exposes us to it.

I suppose happiness is something one enjoys, but I suspect that happiness is not a state but rather a transition.

Happiness is a state of activity.

though pleasure may be purchasable, happiness cannot be bought for a price.

I'm happy, I would say that I'm one of the happiest people I know but I've certainly had periods of profound sadness, depression and heartache and those are the kind of things that are interesting to me to write about.

The standard of success in life isn't the things. It isn't the money or the stuff. It is absolutely the amount of joy that you feel.

Happiness. It comes on unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really, any early morning talk about it.

happiness has always seemed to me a great achievement.

Of mortals there is no one who is happy. If wealth flows in upon one, one may be perhaps luckier than one's neighbor, but still not happy.