'Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a persons own mind—than on the externals in the world.'

'I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.'

- Martha Washington (1731-1802)

Hear about how the Founders placed the pursuit of happiness at the center of good governance.

'You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work.'

- Stevie Wonder (1950-present)

'You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.'

- Hollywood legend Bette Davis (1908 - 1989)

'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.'

- Albert Einstein

'The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.'

- Former President Theodore Roosevelt's (1858–1919)

A quote by Herman Melville

"Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence."

'It's those who lie outside ordinary experience who have the most to teach us.'

- Author Malcolm Gladwell (1963 - present)

'Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.'

- US President James Madison (1751-1836)

A quote by Lucille Ball

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."

'The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.'

-Writer J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

'Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.'

- Legendary author Jane Austen (1775 -1817)

A psychiatrist warns that chasing happiness can lead to misery

Rafa Euba, a retired consultant psychiatrist, argues that happiness is a vague and abstract concept that is hard to quantify. He suggests accepting that suffering and pain are a normal part of life. An attainable goal for one's life is to attempt to minimize pain, and pursue balance and contentment rather than a false ideal of permanent bliss.

'There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.'

-Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)

'Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.'

- Willie Nelson (1933-present)

Four psychological tools for a happier, calmer life

The perennial debate on how to be happy involves various aspects of life, and one of the most essential is our psychological attitudes toward experiences. This piece lists and explains four basic tools to strengthen your "psychological immune...

'All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.'

- Musician George Harrison (1943–2001)

'Keep working on a plan. Make no little plans. Make the biggest one you can think of, and spend the rest of your life carrying it out.'

- President Harry Truman (1884-1972)

'An idea is salvation by imagination.'

- US architect Frank Lloyd Wright

'Don't gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.'

-Reggae pioneer Bob Marley (1945-1981)

'Reputation is what others think about you. What’s far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.'

- Tennis champion Billie Jean King (1943-present)

'Sometimes the biggest problem is in your head. You’ve got to believe you can play a shot instead of wondering where your next bad shot is coming from.'

- Golf great Jack Nicklaus (1940-present)

A quote from Van Gogh

"Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful."

A quote by Ralph Bunche

"The well-being and the hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace - as well as freedom, honor and self-respect - is secure."

'The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts.'

- Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

Some of the 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek's best quotes

"The secret to happiness, of course, is not getting what you want; it's wanting what you get."

'Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.'

-Frances Perkins (1880-1965), first female member of US Cabinet

Visualizing where happiness comes from

Researchers asked 10,000 participants to list 10 things that recently made them happy. One author broke down the responses into subject-verb-object categories, isolating the people and events that made responders satisfied. The result highlights how simple things like having dinner or watching a movie made someone happy. Dive in and look for some ideas or tips on feeling happy today with this fascinating visualization.

'Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.'

- Judy Garland

'Mental hygiene' was the 1843 term for mental health

It was coined by American psychiatrist William Sweetzer to reference the same idea as personal hygiene. Mental hygiene, in Sweetzer's view, needed to be maintained in the same way people attend to their personal cleanliness, an idea that was supplanted by better understanding of the complexities of mental health disorder causes in the decades that followed.

'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.' - Anne Frank

'I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.'

- Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

'What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.'

- First African American Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)

'If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.'

- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

'Everybody has talent and it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is. A talent is a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in.'

- George Lucas (1944-present)

'I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.'

-Comedian George Burns (1896-1996)

A quote by award-winning actor Tom Hanks

"We are still in the position of waking up and having a choice. Do I make the world better today somehow, or do I not bother?"

How to find happiness at work

Can someone be happy at work? Harvard Business School professor and co-author (with Oprah Winfrey) of “Build the Life You Want” attempts to answer the enduring question in this video. Brooks strays from measuring one’s power, income, or title and instead emphasizes the importance of believing in one’s work and positively impacting others.

'Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.'

- 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life"

'Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.'

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

George Washington was an expert in maps and cartography

Trained as a surveyor, Washington routinely studied, annotated, and drew maps throughout his life. He relied on cartography to navigate frontier lands, plan military campaigns across vast distances, and make strategic decisions on borders, settlement, and governance.

'One man can make a difference and every man should try.'

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994)

A quote by Alex Haley

"Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you."

George Washington used his Farewell Address to explain his departure and warn the nation

In his 1796 Farewell Address, Washington explained that stepping aside from the presidency would set a republican example of limited power. He also warned against political parties, regional divisions, and permanent foreign alliances that could threaten national unity and independence.

Ben Franklin’s edit helped define the Declaration’s philosophy

When Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration, he wrote that its truths were “sacred and undeniable.” Benjamin Franklin urged replacing that phrase with “self-evident,” grounding the document in reason rather than religious authority and sharpening its Enlightenment logic.

'No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.'

-Charles Dickens (1812-1870), in "Our Mutual Friend"

'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'

- Inventor Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

'At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.'

- Singer Tina Turner (1993–2023)

'To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.'

- Diplomat Kofi Annan (1938-2018)

William James laid the foundation for psychology as a scientific discipline in the US

Though initially trained in painting, James would help establish Harvard's psychology department as a distinct science rather than an extension of philosophy. He taught one of the first psychology courses in America and is credited as one of the founders of American Pragmatism.