Happiness Quotes and Aphorisms for the International Day of Happiness

This article was prepared with the support of UFL flower delivery. The International Day of Happiness is celebrated on 20 March. The UN General Assembly established it in 2012 at the initiative of Bhutan, a country that measures success not only by GDP but by "gross national happiness". It was first celebrated in 2013, and each year the World Happiness Report comes out around this date; Finland topped it for many years in a row.

Aphorisms about happiness that make you think

• "Learn to find joy in life: it is the best way to attract happiness." Chinese proverb
• "The great science of living happily is to live only in the present." Attributed to Pythagoras
• "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Attributed to Abraham Lincoln
• "When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." Helen Keller
• "The happiest person is the one who makes the greatest number of people happy." Denis Diderot
• "If you want to be happy, be." Kozma Prutkov

Note that the authorship of many popular quotes is disputed. The line attributed to Lincoln, for example, has no reliable source, and the same goes for many "sayings of Pythagoras".

Witty sayings about happiness

• "Happiness is always close by. The trick is to find out whose."
• "The more problems you have, the less you need to be happy."
• "Happiness is being understood. Unhappiness is being found out."
• "The place for happiness is here, and the time is now!"

What science says about happiness

The longest study of happiness, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, has been running since 1938. Its main finding is that warm relationships with the people close to us affect life satisfaction and even health more than money or fame. Psychologists also recommend practising gratitude, moving regularly, getting enough sleep and spending time in nature.

There is evidence about flowers too: in a 2005 Rutgers University study, people who received a bouquet smiled genuinely, and their mood stayed better for several days. The Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda believed that happiness lies in "kindred work", doing what your soul is drawn to.

FAQ

When is the International Day of Happiness?

Every year on 20 March, on or near the spring equinox.

What can I give on the Day of Happiness?

Attention, kind words and a small surprise, such as a spring bouquet with a card.

For more fun quotes see our funny spring quotes, and share a little happiness with flower delivery in Kyiv from UFL.

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Author: Maria Svitlovir

Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.