Melody Beattie Quotes

Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.

It's nice to be with someone, but I don't think you need to be in a relationship to feel complete. That would be really sad.

A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with them.

Am I going to be able to be the person I want to be in this relationship?

We must live by the light of our own self-satisfaction, through that secret vital busy inwardness which is even more remarkable than our reason.

Given all the facts that I'm young and I'm in good health and I'm famous - that I have talent, I have money - given all these facts, I want to know why I'm so unhappy.

Whatever you want that others in your life can't give you, ask yourself how you can give it to yourself.

Understand that there is no relationship between your inner happiness and your inner joy and the outer things that you experience and behold in the world, that it all begins with you, the world is a mirror to your own Self, when you can look at things and feel joy not in the things but in yourself.

A guy isn't the only thing that will make me happy. If I never find romance or love, that will be okay. It's what I want, but it doesn't define me.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them; and a man has attained it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself, and not what other people think lovely and desirable.

I’ve been happy alone and I’ve been unhappy without you. I never wanted to depend on anyone, or to let myself care so much I could be made unhappy. But I depend on you and I love you.

Unhappiness lies in that gap between our talents and our expectations.

I am never unhappy, you can achieve that as well.

When we help ourselves, we find moments of happiness. When we help others, we find lasting fulfillment.

Nothing outside of ourselves will ever make us happy, because happiness is an inside-out experience.

I am quite my own master, agreeably lodged, perfectly easy in my circumstances. I am contented with my situation, and happy because I think myself so.

Often, moreover, it is...that aspect of our being that society finds eccentric, ridiculous, or disagreeable, that holds our sweet waters, our secret well of happiness, the key to our equanimity in malevolent climes.

I need you to be happy. I need one of us to be happy.

Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself. It is wrong to expect some final satisfaction to come from money or from a computer.

If the ingredients for happiness are not within a person, no material success or entertainment or platinum credit cards can make that person smile.

When I stop doing the things that make me unhappy, I will experience the happiness that is that natural state of being. See, I don't think we were created with some pain and misery and whatever. I think we were created by whatever this thing is, when it extended itself, and, here we are. But I pile on so many misconceptions that I end up uncomfortable in my own skin.

Satisfaction comes from the inside out, so people keep gravitating from things externally to try to fill something - get a man to complete them, get money to complete them, get a job to complete them and still find themselves frustrated.

Be happy. If you're successful but unhappy, that's emptiness.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things.

Human entirety can only be what it is when giving up the addiction to others' ends.