44 Contentment Quotes To Inspire

In a world that often emphasizes the pursuit of more—more success, more money, more possessions—it’s easy to lose sight of the quiet power of contentment. Finding peace and satisfaction with where you are in life can lead to profound happiness and well-being. Whether you’re looking for inspiration to cultivate a sense of inner peace or simply want to reflect on the wisdom of those who have understood contentment’s true value, our curated collection of the top 44 contentment quotes is sure to uplift and inspire you. Dive in and discover the timeless words that can help bring your mind to a state of serene fulfillment.

1. “I should be contentto look at a mountainfor what it isand not as a comment on my life.” - David Ignatow

2. “We need much less than we think we need.” - Maya Angelou

3. “Just tell yourself, Duckie, you're real quite lucky.” - Dr. Seuss

4. “I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men's sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for.” - Charles Dickens

5. “I think the secret to a hoppy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what your not.” - Richard Paul Evans

6. “Ari smiled. The sun was shining, the weather was great, he was eating ice cream, and all his dreams were about to come true.” - James Patterson

7. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.” - Charles M. Schulz

8. “Lord, make me nowAs happy as the field.With flowers enriched...” - Eileen Soper

9. “(about William Blake)As for Blake's happiness--a man who knew him said: "If asked whether I ever knew among the intellectual, a happy man, Blake would be the only one who would immediately occur to me."And yet this creative power in Blake did not come from ambition. ...He burned most of his own work. Because he said, "I should be sorry if I had any earthly fame, for whatever natural glory a man has is so much detracted from his spiritual glory. I wish to do nothing for profit. I wish to live for art. I want nothing whatever. I am quite happy."...He did not mind death in the least. He said that to him it was just like going into another room. On the day of his death he composed songs to his Maker and sang them for his wife to hear. Just before he died his countenance became fair, his eyes brightened and he burst into singing of the things he saw in heaven. ” - Brenda Ueland

10. “And you require no answers", Foamfollower was laughing in his gladness, "You are sufficient to every question".” - Stephen R. Donaldson

11. “Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment!” - Ellis Peters

12. “If at eighty you're not a cripple or an invalid, if you have your health, if you still enjoy a good walk, a good meal (with all the trimmings), if you can sleep without first taking a pill, if birds and flowers, mountains and sea still inspire you, you are a most fortunate individual and you should get down on your knees morning and night and thank the good Lord for his savin' and keepin' power. If you are young in years but already weary in spirit, already on your way to becoming an automaton, it may do you good to say to your boss - under your breath, of course - "Fuck you, Jack! you don't own me." If you can whistle up your ass, if you can be turned on by a fetching bottom or a lovely pair of teats, if you can fall in love again and again, if you can forgive your parents for the crime of bringing you into the world, if you are content to get nowhere, just take each day as it comes, if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from going sour, surly, bitter and cynical, man you've got it half licked.” - Henry Miller

13. “It is our work to cast care, and it is God's work to take care.” - Thomas Watson

14. “I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.” - Henry Fielding

15. “A lonely impulse of delight” - W.B. Yeats

16. “Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.” - Sinclair Lewis

17. “Contentment can only happen as we increase desire, let it run itself out towar its fulfilment, and carry us along with it.” - John Eldredge

18. “Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.” - Walt Whitman

19. “She had nothing to wish otherwise, but that the days did not pass so swiftly. It was a delightful visit;—perfect, in being much too short.” - Jane Austen

20. “It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people's lives. It was a life of dignity and honor, not without sorrows yet fulfilling in a way that few experiences ever were.” - Nicholas Sparks

21. “I'm not "happy" but I'm not unhappy about it.” - Alan Bennett

22. “Do you dislike your role in the story, your place in the shadow? What complaints do you have that the hobbits could not have heaved at Tolkien? You have been born into a narrative, you have been given freedom. Act, and act well until you reach your final scene.” - N.D. Wilson

23. “There had to be something wrong with my life. I should have been born a Yugoslavian shepherd who looked up at the Big Dipper every night.” - Haruki Murakami

24. “This book is not the memoir of a contented man. It's not the poignant reflections of a white-haired guru who has finally figured out the secret to contentment. It's more like sweaty, bloody, hastily scribbled notes from a battlefield. I'm still struggling to escape the sinister fingers on this conspiracy. I'm still waging war against the discontentment that rages in my life. I can see contentment in the distance, like a hazy oasis, but I have to pick my way through a minefield to get there. I'm not the contented man God wants me to be, but I'm fighting to get there. I'm writing this book the hope that you'll join me in the fight.” - Stephen Altrogge

25. “he who is greedy is always in want” - Horace

26. “Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?” - Alain De Botton

27. “Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.” - Lao Tzu

28. “Deep, contended joy comes from a place of complete security and confidence [in God] - even in the midst of trial.” - Swindoll Charles R.

29. “Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.” - Julian Barnes

30. “If God gave you contentment then you would never pursue your life purpose. It is your restlessness that pushes you to take action, change your life and seek more of what you could possibly be.” - Shannon Alder

31. “If you're not content with the small things, then you won't be content with the big things.” - Anthony Liccione

32. “Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.” - Henry David Thoreau

33. “Whenever he was in company he wanted to get away, and whenever he was alone he wanted company.” - J.K. Rowling

34. “Give a bull grass, sweet water and a willing heifer and he is happy. But a man is never content. If no gadflies of worry exist he will invent them.” - Alison Fell

35. “My personal opinion is that the neutral position on the mood spectrum—what I called emotional sea level—is nothappiness but rather contentment and the calm acceptance that is the goal of many kinds of spiritual practice.” - Andrew Weil

36. “Enjoy losing weight. Enjoy eating healthy, delicious food. Do not wait until you reach your destination to feel good. Take as much happiness and joy as you can from your weight loss journey.” - Harry Papas

37. “Part of the trick of being happy is a refusal to allow oneself to become too nostalgic for the heady triumphs of one's youth.” - Larry McMurtry

38. “Whenever the sadness got too much, I would hire a rickshaw and go to the Upper Bazaar. Those little rickshaw trips to the market and back, shopping for lipsticks and imitation Gucci bags and wind-chimes and what not, are some of my happiest memories today. You know, one day, during one of those trips, I sold all my well-thumbed copies of ‘Inside Outside’ to the Tibetan guy who ran the old book store on Netaji Road for seventy rupees, six Tintins and a disarming smile. And all of a sudden, that moment, standing at the corner of Netaji road, I found out who I was.’('Left from Dhakeshwari')” - Kunal Sen

39. “My dad’s contentment is all that matters to me. When he’s laughing, I’m laughing. When he’s happy, I’m happy. I would give up my soul for him. To me, nothing else but his happiness matters.” - Rebecah McManus

40. “People will ask you the question 'how is life treating you?' But my question is 'how are you treating life?' On that your happiness rests” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

41. “The happier person is one, that acknowledges and accepts life won't get any better than this.” - Anthony Liccione

42. “I was so nearly happy. There remained only a tiny something, something unexplained and inexplicable that buzzed in my ear when the lights were out, like a malarial mosquito.” - Jennie Rooney

43. “I love everything that makes up a milieu, the rolling of the carriages and the noise of the workmen in Paris, the cries of a thousand birds in the country, the movement of the ships on the waters. I love also absolute, profound silence, and, in short, I love everything that is around me, no matter where I am.” - George Sand

44. “Sometimes in life there's no problem and sometimes in there is no solution. In this space - between these apparent poles - life flows.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru