Wilhelm von Humboldt Quotes

Seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

The performance of duty, and not an indulgence in vapid ease and vapid pleasure, is all that makes life worth while.

Seek happiness for its own sake, and you will not find it; seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

When we are not too anxious about happiness and unhappiness, but devote ourselves to the strict and unsparing performance of duty, then happiness comes of itself - nay, even springs from the midst of a life of troubles and anxieties and privations.

The world would be better and brighter if people were taught the duty of being happy as well as the happiness of doing their duty.

Weak men act to satisfy their needs, stronger men their duties.

The thing for us to do is just to do our duty, and not worry about whether anybody sees us do it or not.

There is no device whatever to be invented for securing happiness without industry, economy, and virtue.

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.

We learn the inner secret of happiness when we learn to direct our inner drives, our interest and our attention to something besides ourselves.

Happiness is the natural flower of duty.

It is easier to do one's duty to others than to one's self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. If you do your duty to yourself, you are considered selfish.

Never mind your happiness; do your duty.

I have an obligation to the people of Illinois, to the Senate and to myself to leave the Senate while I am still eager to serve, not after I tire of serving.

The way to fame goes through the palaces, the way to happiness does through the markets, the way to virtue goes through the deserts.

My life in science has been rich and rewarding. I have sacrificed very little.

There are things that are more important than my personal happiness.

There is no growth except in the fulfillment of obligations.

The happiest people I know are people who don't even think about being happy. They just think about being good neighbors, good people. And then happiness sort of sneaks in the back window while they are busy doing good.

It is a terrible thing to be happy! How pleased we are with it! How all-sufficient we think it! How, being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty!

It is thy duty often times to do what thou wouldst not; thy duty too, to leave undone that thou wouldst do.

The life of pleasure breeds boredom. The life of duty breeds resentment.

If I do my full duty, the rest will take care of itself.

The Bhagavad-Gita calls on humanity to dedicate body, mind and soul to pure duty and not to become mental voluptuaries at the mercy of random desires and undisciplined impulses.

Let men of all ranks whether they are successful, or unsuccessful, whether they triumph or not; let them do their duty, and rest satisfied.