Fear of Happiness Quotes

I think a lot of people are afraid of being happy because of what others might think of it.

The last thing I want to do is get too happy.

There's the risk of being loved...and that would keep me from being happy.

Why do I want to run from happiness?

The tragedy of too many people is that they cannot allow happiness just to be there; they cannot leave it alone. Their sense of who they are and of what their destiny is cannot accommodate happiness. So they are drive to find ways to sabotage it.

It seems that everyone has their own inexplicable fear to have nightmares about. We need nightmares to keep ourselves entertained, and fend off the contentment that we all fear and abhor so much.

Success is terrifying. Like happiness, it is often appreciated in retrospect. It's only later that you place it in perspective. Years from now, I'll look back and say, ‘God, wasn't it wonderful.’

I have scars on my hands from touching certain people...Certain heads, certain colours and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me. Other things, too. Charlotte once ran away from me, outside the studio, and I grabbed her dress to stop her, to keep her near me. A yellow cotton dress I loved because it was too long for her. I still have a lemon-yellow mark on the palm of my right hand. Oh God, if I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy.

People waste their happiness - that's what makes me sad. Everyone's so scared to be happy.

Why is it so many people are afraid to admit they are happy?

Whenever I get happy, I always have a terrible feeling.

... it's possible to let love fly by like a cloud in a windy sky if one is too timid, or perhaps unable to believe he is entitled to good fortune.

There is even a happiness - that makes the heart afraid.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We're almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it's inviting disaster.

Humans are cowards in the face of happiness. It takes courage to hold on to happiness.

I think of myself as somebody who, in a moment-to-moment way, I'm quite happy. But I think I am a bit doubtful and wary of true happiness, and, like a lot of my friends, there's been a good degree of self-sabotage.

The greatest fear in my life was getting happy. I'm not so afraid of that anymore.

Have you ever noticed when you start getting happy, you say, uh-uh, I'd better watch out. I feel too good. Something's going to happen.

I would cling to unhappiness because it was a known, familiar state. When I was happier, it was because I knew I was on my way back to misery. I've never been convinced that happiness is the object of the game. I'm wary of happiness.

She said, 'I'm so afraid.' And I said, 'why?,' and she said, 'Because I'm so profoundly happy, Dr. Rasul. Happiness like this is frightening.' I asked her why and she said, 'They only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.

What we've been finding is people are afraid of happiness. They're afraid of happiness because they think we'll stagnate or we'll be blind: that if I'm happy now, I won't keep fighting as hard. If I'm happy now, I won't push as hard to make a better world. That's what pleasure does. Joy does the exact opposite.

I’m really afraid to feel happy because it never lasts

It's difficult for people sometimes to recognise when they're happy. People sometimes seem to me to be afraid to be happy.

I think I'm afraid of being happy because whenever I get too happy something bad always happens.