48/365 - The Habit of Doubt (Siddhārtha Gautama)

“There is nothing more dreadful

 than the habit of doubt. 

Doubt separates people. 

It is a poison that disintegrates friendships

 and breaks up pleasant relations.

 It is a thorn that irritates and hurts;

 it is a sword that kills.”

  - Siddhārtha Gautama

47/365 - The Change that we Seek (Barack Obama)

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, 

or if we wait for some other time. 

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

 We are the change that we seek.”

  - Barack Obama

46/365 - Boldness has Genius (Goethe)

“Whatever you can do

or dream you can, 

begin it.

 Boldness has genius,

 power and magic in it!”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

45/365 - I dwell among the people (John Henry Newman)

“I sought to hear the voice of God 

and climbed the topmost steeple, 

but God declared:

 "Go down again - 

I dwell among the people.”

- John Henry Newman

44/365 - Facing up to things (Sarah Dessen)

“Anyone can hide. 

 Facing up to things, 

working through them,

 that's what makes you strong.”

- Sarah Dessen

43/365 - Three of your Greatest Treasures (Lao Tzu)

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, 

you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”

  - Lao Tzu

(Tao Te Ching)

42/365 - Great Heroes need great Sorrow (Peter S. Beagle)

“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens,

 or half their greatness goes unnoticed. 

It is all part of the fairy tale.”
- Peter S. Beagle

(The Last Unicorn)

41/365 - What one Emphasizes (Carlos Castaneda)

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. 

We either make ourselves miserable,

 or we make ourselves happy.

 The amount of work is the same.”

  - Carlos Castaneda

40/365 - One way to Happiness (Epictetus)

“There is only one way to happiness

 and that is to cease worrying about things 

which are beyond the power or our will. ”

  - Epictetus

39/365 - Hard to be Happy (Marcel Pagnol)

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy

 is that they always see the past better than it was, 

the present worse than it is, 

and the future less resolved than it will be.”

  - Marcel Pagnol

38/365 - Pursuit of Happiness (Aldous Huxley)

“Happiness is not achieved 

by the conscious pursuit of happiness; 

it is generally the by-product of other activities.”

  - Aldous Huxley

37/365 - The Hours of the Afternoon (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- 

one of those uneventful times 

that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, 

but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Tender Is the Night)

36/365 - The Settling of the Soul (Aristotle)

“Happiness is the settling of the soul

 into its most appropriate spot.”

- Aristotle

35/365 - Being Loved (Charlotte Brontë)

“There is no happiness like that of being loved

 by your fellow creatures, 

and feeling that your presence 

is an addition to their comfort.”

  - Charlotte Brontë

34/365 - Your Best Wishes (Tony DeLiso)

“Keep your best wishes, 

close to your heart 

and watch what happens”

  - Tony DeLiso

(Legacy: The Power Within)

33/365 - The Secret to Happiness (J.M. Barrie)

“The secret of happiness 

is not in doing what one likes, 

but in liking what one does.”

  - J.M. Barrie

32/365 - Bring us the Tranquility (Dalai Lama XIV)

“Only the development of compassion

 and understanding for others 

can bring us the tranquility

 and happiness 

we all seek.”

- Dalai Lama XIV

31/365 - A Life Privileged to lead (Elizabeth Berg)

“There are random moments - 

tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, 

ironing the seams flat on a quilt square,

 standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums,

 hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - 

when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. 

This is my true religion: 

arbitrary moments of nearly painful happiness

 for a life I feel privileged to lead.”

  - Elizabeth Berg

(The Art of Mending)

30/365 - One's own Effort (George Sand)

“One is happy 

as a result of one's own efforts

 once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: 

simple tastes, 

a certain degree of courage, 

self denial to a point,

 love of work, 

and above all, a clear conscience.”

- George Sand

29/365 - Happiness is a Perfume (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“Happiness is a perfume 

you cannot pour on others

 without getting some on yourself.”

  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

28/365 - What is needed for happiness (Leo Tolstoy)

“I have lived through much, 

and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness.

 A quiet secluded life in the country, 

with the possibility of being useful to people 

to whom it is easy to do good,

 and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; 

then work which one hopes may be of some use; 

then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — 

such is my idea of happiness. 

And then, on top of all that, 

you for a mate, and children perhaps. —

 What more can the heart of a man desire?”

  - Leo Tolstoy

(Family Happiness and Other Stories)

27/365 - Take the power to choose (Susan Polis Schutz)

“This life is yours.

 Take the power to choose what you want to do

 and do it well.

 Take the power to love what you want in life

 and love it honestly. 

Take the power to walk in the forest

 and be a part of nature. 

Take the power to control your own life. 

No one else can do it for you.

 Take the power to make your life happy.”

- Susan Polis Schutz

26/365 - Sweet Innocence (C. JoyBell C.)

“There is some kind of a sweet innocence

 in being human-

 in not having to be just happy 

or just sad-

 in the nature of being able

 to be both broken and whole, 

at the same time.”

- C. JoyBell C.

25/365 - No Happiness without Action (William James)

“Action may not always bring Happiness, 

but there is no Happiness without action.”

  - William James

24/365 - True and Lasting Happiness (Dalai Lama XIV)

“I believe compassion 

to be one of the few things we can practice

 that will bring immediate 

and long-term happiness to our lives. 

I’m not talking about the short-term gratification 

of pleasures like sex, drugs or gambling 

(though I’m not knocking them), 

but something that will bring true and lasting happiness. 

The kind that sticks.”

  - Dalai Lama XIV

23/365 - Stringing Together Small Pleasures (Ann Brashares)

“Maybe happiness didn't have to be about the big, 

sweeping circumstances,

 about having everything in your life in place. 

Maybe it was about stringing together 

a bunch of small pleasures. 

Wearing slippers and watching the Miss Universe contest. 

Eating a brownie with vanilla ice cream. 

Getting to level seven in Dragon Master 

and knowing there were twenty more levels to go.

Maybe happiness was just a matter of the little upticks- 

the traffic signal that said "Walk" 

the second you go there- 

and downticks- 

the itch tag at the back of your collar-

that happened to every person in the course of the day.

 Maybe everybody 

had the same allotted measure of happiness

 within each day.

Maybe it didn't matter

 if you were a world-famous heartthrob 

or a painful geek. 

Maybe it didn't matter if your friend was possibly dying.

Maybe you just got through it. 

Maybe that was all you could ask for.”

- Ann Brashares

(The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)

22/365 - Different and yet the Same (Anne Frank)

“We all live with the objective of being happy;

 our lives are all different and yet the same.”

- Anne Frank

21/365 - A Life well lived (Eleanor Roosevelt)

“Happiness is not a goal.

It's a by-product of a life well lived.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

20/365 - Our Laughter kept them in the air (Jonathan Safran Foer)

“Feathers filled the small room.

Our laughter kept the feathers in the air.

 I thought about birds. 

Could they fly if there wasn't someone, 

somewhere,

 laughing?”

- Jonathan Safran Foer

(Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

19/365 - Something to Hope for (Tom Bodett)

“They say a person needs just three things

 to be truly happy in this world: 

someone to love, 

something to do,

 and something to hope for.”

  - Tom Bodett

18/365 - The Power of finding Beauty (Louisa May Alcott)

“The power of finding beauty

 in the humblest things 

makes home happy and life lovely.”

- Louisa May Alcott