Victor Hugo

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.

One can resist the invasion of an army, but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

Money itself won’t bring happiness, but it sure makes paying the bills easier.

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.

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

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

If happiness is what you’re after, you’re gonna be let down frequently and you’re gonna be unhappy much of your time. Joy though, joy is the feeling that we have doing what we are fashioned to do, no matter the outcome.

If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.

Don’t worry, be happy!

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

I’ve found happiness in my work, but not in my private life. I had to take from my private life to make my public life successful. I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I was happy in Cardiff. I had a great time. Every Thursday there was a factory club; darts, dancing. I was happy until success entered my life, and then it was all downhill. Success spoilt me. It took away my happiness. My success became a barrier with my family. They couldn’t relate to me, and I couldn’t relate to them.

When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun.

The truth is that all of us can attain the greatest success and happiness possible in this life whenever we use our native capacities to its greatest extent.

They’ve got no idea what happiness is, they don’t know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us–there is no life.

I have to plan my happiness. That’s the thing, we think happiness just happens and it can, but you’ve got to work in some happiness too.

Choose happiness, not success, as your life’s goal. If you become successful but aren’t happy, then what is the point?