“Happiness is not exuberant or noisy, like pleasure or joy; it's silent, tranquil, and gentle.”

— Isabel Allende, The Japanese Lover (2015)

About Isabel Allende

Born 1942

Chilean-American novelist, author of "The House of the Spirits".

“Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.”

“Silence before being born, silence after death: life is nothing but noise between two unfathomable silences.”

“Photographs deceive time, freezing it on a piece of cardboard where the soul is silent.”

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”

“Those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.”

“We call "happiness" a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible.”

“There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.”

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”