Happy Stories! Quotes

“Happy people are not people without problems; they are people who face their problems and at some point make a decision to move past them.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. ―Paul Boese”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it. —Buddha”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Share your vision only with those who can support it.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest; Home-keeping hearts are happiest, For those that wander they know not where, Are full of trouble and full of care; To stay at home is best. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Happiness and self-esteem are proportional. The better you feel about yourself, the happier you are. “I get up every morning, and I get excited that I get to be me for another twenty-four hours!” Pooki gushed. This isn’t vanity. Vanity is believing that you are the center of the universe, whereas accepting appreciation and approval is savoring the sunlight that shines your way.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“To cultivate your own happiness, remember the words of venerated Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz: “A truly happy person does not allow his happiness to be dependent on any external factor over which he may not have control.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“And yet just as a jagged stone is smoothed round when tumbled by the relentless current of the river, so too have Virginie’s rough edges been filed away by the river of life.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“If we constantly focus on ourselves, we find a black hole that always wants more—more money, more status, more fitness, more friends, more everything. This hole can never be filled. The quickest way to shift from emptiness to fullness is to want other people to be happy.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“When you’ve studied a problem from every conceivable angle and can’t seem to find a solution, sometimes the best you can do is walk away from it completely. Then, when you come back with clear, fresh eyes, you see the answer.” The young man stood mouth agape. Charlie toasted him with his cup. “You see, son, the answer is right there in front of us, we’re just looking too hard for it. As soon as we back off a little, we’ll see it.” And”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Happiness depends upon ourselves. —Aristotle”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Jogging is very beneficial. It’s good for your legs and your feet. It’s also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed. —Charles M. Schulz”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. —John F. Kennedy”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself. — Publilius Syrus”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Hugging boosts the neuropeptide oxytocin, which has a lowering effect on blood pressure, promotes well-being, and even improves memory.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“A truly happy person does not allow his happiness to be dependent on any external factor over which he may not have control.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“When you begin to understand that millions of people alive today would gladly trade places with you at any time, you realize just how privileged you are.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“You never know whose life you can change with a smile. If you approach life with a smile, you’re showing strength and you’re showing optimism, and this world is missing that. If you can smile in the toughest time of your life, everything else is smooth and easy.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Make the world a better place: “And how do you make the world a better place?” Betts asks, excited as a child. “Make yourself a better person. Become someone that people want to be around. You have to think about people around you. Improving yourself isn’t vain or selfish. Constantly making yourself better so that other people will benefit from being around you is actually thoughtful and generous.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“You can’t be happy when you are complaining: Complaining amplifies problems, it doesn’t diminish them. Complaining only increases being upset; it doesn’t lessen it. If complaining made people feel better, then the biggest complainers would be the happiest people.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. —Chief Tecumseh”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“You can take a step one day in a direction that is not best suited to your purpose. Then the next day you take another step along this path, and then another. Soon you have walked away from what would most bring you happiness and satisfaction.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Happy people believe they are happy. This is one of the secrets to happiness. No one who believes him or herself to be unhappy is actually happy. Happiness is a mind-set”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“If other people resist your point of view on something, it’s a chance to check in with yourself and see if you truly believe what you are saying and to clarify and change or, ideally, strengthen your perspective.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“People are so caught up in their age," she says. "You decide how old you are, not the calendar.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Accept where you are in life—it's OK. Virginie was recently denied the renewal of her driver's license for the first time; so, she sold her car. "What are you going to do?" she says with a big shrug of her shoulders. "You can't change it, you just adapt—you accept it.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World

“Refuse to be unhappy. "I see so many unhappy people, and I just don't get it," Virginie says with a weary smily. "It's like some people just want to be unhappy. Life is filled with phases, and it's how you adapt that makes you either happy or unhappy.”
― Will Bowen, Happy Stories!: Real-Life Inspirational Stories from Around the World