This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux.
Misfortune | Nothing | Purity | Taste | Wisdom | World | Happiness |
Shantananda Saraswathi, fully Swami Shantananda Saraswathi, born Chandrashekar
Since every soul is looking for happiness and since happiness is really nowhere except in Divine Essence, every soul has to realize ultimately that it has been distracted. Then every soul has to retrace its steps so it can reach that Source of happiness which is both divine and universal.
Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.
Circumstances | Wisdom | Happiness |
Sam Shoemaker, fully Samuel "Sam" Moor Shoemaker, III
Happiness is the sense that one matters. Happiness is an abiding enthusiasm. Happiness is single-mindedness. Happiness is whole-heartedness. Happiness is a by-product. Happiness is faith.
Enthusiasm | Faith | Sense | Wisdom | Happiness |
Lydia Sigourney, fully Lydia Huntley Sigourney, née Lydia Howard Huntley
One of the principal ingredients in the happiness of childhood is freedom from suspicion - why may it not be combined with a more extensive intercourse with mankind? A disposition to dwell on the bright side of character is like gold to its possessor; but to imagine more evil than meets the eye, betrays affinity for it.
Character | Childhood | Evil | Freedom | Gold | Mankind | Suspicion | Wisdom | Happiness |
Friedrich Schiller, fully Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
I have enjoyed the happiness of the world; I have lived and loved.
The happiness of married life depends upon making small sacrifices with readiness and cheerfulness.
Cheerfulness | Life | Life | Wisdom | Happiness |
C. P. Snow, fully Charles Percy "C.P." Snow
The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: If you pursue happiness you'll never find it.
We all would do well to entertain the possibility of new alternative realities; since it is our definition of reality that decides for each of us what is possible, and what is not possible... Our personal 'reality' is shaped by our thoughts. They determine how we perceive our future, our accomplishments, our relationships. Our emotions are our reactions to these thoughts and perceptions, and mirror our inner consciousness. They play a crucial role in our happiness and physical well-being.
Consciousness | Emotions | Future | Play | Reality | Wisdom | Happiness |
Madame Swetchine, fully Anne Sophie Swetchine née Sophia Petrovna Soïmonov or Soymanof
How easy it is to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.
John B. Tabb, fully John Banister Tabb
Every year that I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not given, the power we have not used, the selfish prudence which will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well.
Life | Life | Love | Nothing | Pain | Power | Prudence | Prudence | Risk | Waste | Will | Wisdom | Happiness |
Lawrence Sterne, alternatively Laurence Sterne
Endless is the search for truth.
Lawrence Sterne, alternatively Laurence Sterne
The happiness of life may be greatly increased by small courtesies in which there is no parade, whose voice is too still to tease, and which manifest themselves by tender and affectionate looks, and little acts of attention.
Attention | Life | Life | Little | Looks | Wisdom | Happiness |