If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that happiness is often a choice. Yes, I know that life can be and feel challenging. And I am also quite aware that making the decision to be happy can feel not just lackluster, but practically impossible.
Yet, I know that there is mighty power in making a decision. There’s this magical alchemical process that happens when we make a decision. As if we’re putting the power of God and the universe behind us to ensure we succeed.
I am, however, a bit of a realist. And I know that making the decision to choose happiness – especially when life feels pretty rotten – can be tough. That’s why, time after time, I turn to a collection of quotes to help remind me that making the choice to be happy is the path to actually BEING happier. Another way to make sure you make the right choice in the way of a happy future is to try love reading and this service help you with any question.
Here’s sixty-seven of my favorite quotes that remind me that making the decision to be happy is the best choice and decision you could ever make.
- “What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore—plays in defining the quality of our life.”
— Cal Newport
- “Your mind is just like your body. It’s a muscle you can train and get better at.”
— Rose Namajunas - “Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.”
— Joel Osteen - “If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.”
— Norman Vincent Peale - “Trust your own instincts, go inside, follow your heart. Right from the start. go ahead and stand up for what you believe in. As I’ve learned, that’s the path to happiness.”
— Lesley Ann Warren - “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”
— Russell M. Nelson
- “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”
— Carol Burnett - “Watch your manner of speech if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful.”
— Norman Vincent Peale - “Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.”
— Walter Anderson - “If you learn to really sit with loneliness and embrace it for the gift that it is…an opportunity to get to know YOU, to learn how strong you really are, to depend on no one but YOU for your happiness…you will realize that a little loneliness goes a LONG way in creating a richer, deeper, more vibrant and colorful YOU.”
— Mandy Hale - “Dedicate yourself to the good you deserve and desire for yourself. Give yourself peace of mind. You deserve to be happy.”
— Hannah Arendt
- “Happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy. There’s going to be stress in life, but it’s your choice whether you let it affect you or not.”
–Valerie Bertinelli - “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
— William James - “You’ve got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old – whatever “the old” means for you.”
— Sarah Ban Breathnach - “If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.”
— John O’Donohue - “A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.”
— Patricia Neal - “Don’t forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally.”
— Hannah Bronfman - “It’s so important to realize that every time you get upset, it drains your emotional energy. Losing your cool makes you tired. Getting angry a lot messes with your health.” — Joyce Meyer
- “Love yourself. Enough to take the actions required for your happiness. Enough to cut yourself loose from the drama-filled past. Enough to set a high standard for relationships. Enough to feed your mind and body in a healthy manner. Enough to forgive yourself. Enough to move on.”
— Steve Maraboli - “Happiness, true happiness, is an inner quality. It is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. If your mind is at peace, but you have nothing else, you can be happy. If you have everything the world can give – pleasure, possessions, power – but lack peace of mind, you can never be happy.”
— Dada Vaswani - “I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It’s all a question of how I view my life.”
— Paulo Coelho
- “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
— Brene Brown - “Happiness in your heart is directly proportional to the quality of thoughts in your mind.”
— Asma Naqi - “Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don’t give up hope. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm and genuine people.”
— Tena Desae - “Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy and rewarding life.”
— Marilu Henner - “Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”
— Mary Oliver
- “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
— Denis Waitley - “Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.”
— Theodore Isaac Rubin - “Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke - “Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.”
— Kevyn Aucoin - “No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.”
— Barbara DeAngelis
- “The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.”
— J. Martin Kohe - “Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.”
— Khalil Gibran - “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
— Maya Angelou - “Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.”
— Theodore Isaac Rubin - “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”
— Henri J.M. Nouwen
- “Carrying yourself with poise and joy and peace within – that’s sexy.”
— Leah LaBelle - “At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh - “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.”
— Earl Nightingale - “I think that life is difficult. People have challenges. Family members get sick, people get older, you don’t always get the job or the promotion that you want. You have conflicts in your life. And really, life is about your resilience and your ability to go through your life and all of the ups and downs with a positive attitude.”
— Jennifer Hyman - “All I can control is myself and just keep having a positive attitude.”
— Rose Namajunas
- “Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.” Joel Osteen
- “Whatever creates or increases happiness or some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.”
— Aristotle - “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
— Norman Vincent Peale - “If I have one piece of advice to give you all about what to search for in your quest for What Next, it’s to find where the line blurs between hard work and happiness for you. To find that thing where working hard at it makes you happy, and where you’re happy to work hard at it.”
— Tom Fletcher - “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future.”
— Earl Nightingale
- “Don’t forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally.”
— Hannah Bronfman - “Happiness is always there. You just have to choose to see it. There’s no point dwelling in the dark and ignoring the light of the stars.”
— Carrie Hope Fletcher - “Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.” — Ann Patchett
- Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don’t really mean anything.”
— Normal Lear - “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
— Marcus Aurelius
- “True self-acceptance shows up in that moment when you realize that peace cannot co-exist with war. The moment you choose to stop being your own enemy and to love yourself instead.” — Rebecca Ray
- “Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”
— Tony Schwartz - “I don’t go by or change my attitude based on what people say. At the end of the day, they, too, are judging me from their perspective. I would rather be myself and let people accept me for what I am than be somebody who I am not, just because I want people’s approval.”
— Karan Patel - “For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you’re not going to be very happy. If someone bases his [or her] happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.”
— Andy Rooney - “Some days are just bad days, that’s all. You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that’s just the way it is!”
— Dita Von Teese
- “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
— Buddha - “Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.”
— David Steindl-Rast - “Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them.”
— Robert R. Updegraff - “I believe I know the only cure, which is to make one’s center of life inside of one’s self, not selfishly or excludingly, but with a kind of unassailable serenity—to decorate one’s inner house so richly that one is content there, glad to welcome anyone who wants to come and stay, but happy all the same when one is inevitably alone.”
— Edith Wharton - “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
–Jim Rohn
- “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
— Marcus Aurelius - “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”
— Ayn Rand - “Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.”
— Joel Osteen - “Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.”
–Gerard Way
- “The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.”
— William Lyon Phelps - “From the backstabbing co-worker to the meddling sister-in-law, you are in charge of how you react to the people and events in your life. You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead. Take control and choose to focus on what is important in your life. Those who cannot live fully often become destroyers of life.”
— Anais Nin
I hope these quotes have been helpful when it comes to making the decision to be happy.
As I often remind my clients, if you aren’t exactly feeling it, write (and re-write) these quotes in your journal as reminder that you can choose your thoughts and emotions. And that choosing to be happy can be the path to experiencing happiness. No matter how chaotic the world may be.
Additionally, you could write stories and journals about finding happiness, using these quotes for ideas and inspiration. This will help you choose the best words to express your happiness and enjoy the present moment.
Want more help in choosing to be happy? Choose a Word of the Year!
Get your FREE Copy of this powerful workbook: A Guiding Light for 2024: Discover Your Word of the Year
Never forget that you deserve to be happy. And combining a word of the year with a gratitude practice – with inspiration from all these gratitude quotes – can help you make that a reality.
