Alan Alda

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing, but what you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.

When you embark for strange places don’t leave any of yourself safely at the shore… Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.

What’s the use of happiness? It can’t buy you money.

There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.

You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Happiness isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition. You must define what it looks like for you and then make a conscious effort to access whatever gets you to your unique definition of joy.

The unhappiest man on earth is the one who has nothing to do.

Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.

Don’t worry, be happy!

Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one’s self to do without it.

One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.

How often, for example, have you said or heard someone else say, “All I really want in this life is to be happy”? It sounds like a commonsense answer, but as a life goal, it is destined for failure. My dog, Barkley, wants to be happy. Does that mean that the two of you want the same things? I don’t think so. I’ll bet everything I own that you and Barkley define happiness very differently. So unless you’re willing to settle for someone scratching your belly and letting you sleep under the coffee table, you might want to be a little more precise about what you as a unique individual really want.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

I’m always smiling and happy.

I love people who make me laugh.