* We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
>> Thomas Jefferson early draft for the Declaration of Independence (June 1776)

* We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
>> Thomas Jefferson's final draft for the Declaration of Independence (July 1776)

* The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
o Thomas Jefferson Letter "to the Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland" (31 March 1809)

* Happiness depends, as Nature shows,
Less on exterior things than most suppose."
o William Cowper in Table Talk (1817) line 246

* Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.
o Nathaniel Hawthorne in The American Notebooks (1851)

* In all this world there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child.
>> Santa Claus in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902) by L. Frank Baum

* The nicest Thing about being Happy is that You think You'll never be Unhappy Again
>> Luis Molina in Kiss of The Spider Woman

* Most people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and material possession. Could they win some visible goal which they have set on the horizon, how happy they could be! Lacking this gift or that circumstance, they would be miserable. If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and weep. If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life, — if, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.
>> Helen Keller in Optimism (1903)
 

 

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