Carolyn Wells Quotes

Look for joy in your life; it's not always easy to find.

Happiness is not the acquisition of anything; it's the understanding of something.

Happiness lies in the consciousness we have of it.

We may have forgotten how to feel. Nobody is teaching us how to live happily ever after, as we've heard in fairy tales.

I do believe that if you haven't learnt about sadness, you cannot appreciate happiness.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always thought it very important to be happy inside. There's a lot of bad things happening in the world, but it's important to try to stay happy and appreciate what you've got, and don't look externally for the happiness.

Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention.

I guess I don't think there's any reason to feel guilty about having joy in your life, regardless of how bad things are in the world.

The secret to life is finding joy in ordinary things. I'm interested in happiness.

I'm learning how to live in the present and be grateful for what's working rather than look for the 'what's not working' piece.

Every life is narrow. Our only escape is not to run away, but to learn to love the people we are and the world in which we find ourselves.

The happiest people in this world are those who have the most interesting thoughts.

We possess only the happiness we are able to understand.

Happiness is an inside job.

All I can focus on is what I can control and that's being happy. My own happiness.

Choosing to be grateful earns you happiness

Know your own happiness.

Happiness is a state of mind.

Happiness is a state of mind, and depends very little on outward circumstances.

Those who are the most happy appear to know it the least; happiness is something that for the most part seems to mainly consist in not knowing it.

Without our stories, we are not only able to act clearly and fearlessly, we are also a friend, a listener. We are people living happy lives. We are appreciation and gratitude that have become as natural as breath itself. Happiness is the natural state for someone who knows that there's nothing to know and that we already have everything we need, right here now.

[I] never talk about gratitude and joy separately, for this reason. In 12 years, I've never interviewed a single person who would describe their lives as joyful, who would describe themselves as joyous, who was not actively practicing gratitude.

I have lived large parts of my life in wonderful circumstances that I utterly failed to appreciate. Reasons to be happy were everywhere, but somehow I didn't connect with them. It was as though I was eating but couldn't taste the food. Finally, I've learned to celebrate the good while it's happening. I feel gratitude and praise today for what are sometimes such simple pleasures. I have learned that happiness is not determined by circumstances. Happiness is not what happens when everything goes the way you think it should go; happiness is what happens when you decide to be happy.

There are a great many people in our society who are happy, but since they don't know they're happy, they're not happy.

Life could be vastly improved if we could count our blessings as self-actualizing people can and do, and if we could retain their constant sense of good fortune and gratitude for it.