60+ Choose Happiness Quotes for Building a Happy Life

I've often thought about what it means to choose happiness. Does choosing happiness mean that I can instantly change how I feel?

Does it mean that even though I might be going through a mental illness, I can choose to be happy can heal miraculously?

I don't think so. I think choosing happiness means making hundreds of little choices that take my days in the direction of overall happy life.

It's making the choice of taking care of my health, using my time and energy in a way that works for my welfare and core values, staying close to my inner child, it is learning to say "NO", it's accepting myself, it's about focusing on gratitude, and so much more!

It's the amalgamation of all these little choices that together mean to choose happiness.

So, now that we're clear on its meaning, let's dive into choose happiness quotes that will help inspire us to make a happy life:

Choose Happiness Quotes

“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

“No matter what's happening, choose to be happy. Don't focus on what's wrong. Find something positive in your life. Thank God for the small things.”
– Joel Osteen

“You’ve got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old — whatever “the old” means for you.”
– Sarah Ban Breathnach

“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

To keep the quality of your thoughts high and have happy days, here are daily affirmations to help you shape a beautiful state of mind:

“Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy.”
– Ralph Marston

“Don’t forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally.”
– Hannah Bronfman

“Happiness in your heart is directly proportional to the quality of thoughts in your mind.”
– Asma Naqi

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
– Jim Rohn

“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

“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

“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

“At any moment, you have a choice that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

“True self-acceptance shows up at 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

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.”
– Gerard Way

“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

“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

“Don't stay in a bad situation, whether it is a relationship or a job, out of fear of failure. It's not a failure to walk away and choose to be happy. It takes a lot of courage.”
– Danielle Trussoni

“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

“There will always be obstacles and choices. Your job is to choose which choice leads to the best outcome.”
– Germany Kent

“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

“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

“Happiness already exists in your life. All you need to do is tune into it. And you can start doing that right now.”
– Anthon St. Maarten

“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

“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

“Be so happy that when others look at you, they become happy too.”
– Harbhajan Singh Yogi

“Dedicate yourself to the good you deserve and desire for yourself. Give yourself peace of mind. You deserve to be happy.”
– Hannah Arendt

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
– Marcel Proust

“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
— Victor Hugo

“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

“Happiness is a way of travel not a destination.”
– Roy M. Goodman

“Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.”
– James Dean

“It's not that life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as expected. I just choose to be happy and grateful no matter how it all turns out. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”
– Albert Einstein

“What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore—plays in defining the quality of our life.”
– Cal Newport

“Happiness doesn't have to be chased... it merely has to be chosen.”
— Mandy Hale

“Believing, desiring, deciding, and choosing correctly are the simple actions that define an increase in happiness and an increase in the inner assurance that transcends this life.”
— Benjamin De Hoyos

“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”
— Yongey Mingyur

“Choosing to be grateful earns you happiness.”
— Dennis Prager

“Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.”
— Dale Carnegie

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.”
— Groucho Marx

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude."
— Denis Waitley

"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness."
— Charles Spurgeon

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."
— Dale Carnegie

"It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness."
— Thomas Jefferson

"Today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it."
— Kevyn Aucoin

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties."
— Helen Keller

"I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises."
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
— Dalai Lama

“How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now, and there will never be a time when it is not now.”
— Gerald Jampolsky

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.”
— Thomas Merton

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
— Mahatma Gandhi

“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?”
— Albert Camus

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.”
— Ashley Montagu

“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.”
— Iris Murdoch

“People with many interests live, not only longest, but happiest.”
— George Matthew Allen

“The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions—the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, , and the countless other infinitesimal of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves.”
— Baron Alexander von Humboldt

“Happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature; it is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool.”
— John M. Good

“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You must fight for it, strive for it, and insist upon it.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

“One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
— Unknown

“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself, or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”
— Wayne Dyer

“Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers’ gardens.”
— Douglas Jerrold

💗 Continue Reading: 60 Quotes to Inspire You to Be Yourself And Celebrate Your Uniqueness

Aarushi Tewari

The writer and affirmations speaker at Gratitude, Aarushi believes that one of the most effective ways of feeling inner peace is by being grateful and having a loving self-relationship.