Charles Mackay Quotes

How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out.

There is little consolation in the fact that millions of people are unhappier than we are. Why should other people's misery make us happier or more content?

I have a great deal of joy in my life, and I'm very fortunate. That combination makes you aware of just how wonderful life can be on the one hand and how dreadful it can be for people on the other. You can't be happy in isolation.

I don't think we can be entirely happy seeing such misery around us.

There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.

Not enough people in this world are happy.

Luckier than one's neighbor, but still not happy.

I am quite miserable because I'm never satisfied with what I've got. You're always looking for that next high, and that is what I would define as happiness.

I think when I look out and I see there's so much negativity in the world and a lot of people are unhappy and a lot people are anxious, it just feels like that's one view of the world. But you don't have to always focus on that view of the world.

No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.

It is not every man who can be exquisitely miserable, any more than exquisitely happy.

We have the tendency to run away from suffering and to look for happiness. But, in fact, if you have not suffered, you have no chance to experience real happiness.

As this world was not intended to be a state of any great satisfaction or high enjoyment, so neither was it intended to be a mere scene of unhappiness and sorrow.

There are two kinds of people on this Earth: Those who are content and those who are not.

It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.

Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations.

Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

No man is happy but by comparison.

Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

None think the great unhappy, but the great.

In order to have great happiness you have to have great pain and unhappiness - otherwise how would you know when you're happy?

If you're not happy before you're successful, you're going to be miserable when you do become successful because all your problems just get magnified.

The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.