Happiness Quote by Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho issues a daring invitation: consider putting your happiness first, and face the possibility that you never have. The power lies in the gentle words try and may. She is not scolding or preaching. She is opening a door to a practice many have been trained to avoid, especially women, queer people, children of immigrants, caregivers, and anyone socialized to serve others before themselves. The challenge is not to be cruel but to be honest. Honesty exposes how often choices are made for approval, peacekeeping, or obligation rather than joy.

Coming from a comedian whose job is literally to make people happy, the line carries extra charge. Cho has long mined her own life for laughs and truth, talking about body shaming, addiction, abuse, and the pressures of representation. She knows the cost of performing happiness for others. Prioritizing her own has been an act of survival and artistic integrity. That context turns the advice from a self-help platitude into a hard-won boundary: you cannot build a meaningful life around other people’s comfort and still remain whole.

Putting your happiness first is not a zero-sum game. It is an alignment that protects against resentment, burnout, and quiet despair. When you make room for your joy, you stop giving from a place of depletion. Relationships become cleaner because consent is clearer. Saying yes means yes, not maybe laced with fear. Saying no becomes an act of respect, not rebellion.

The hardest part is the honesty she insists on. Ask when you last chose what you truly wanted, without angling for praise, avoiding conflict, or playing the role expected of you. If the answer is never, that realization is not a failure but a starting point. Try it once, then again. Let happiness be a priority, not an afterthought. From there, care for others can be offered freely, not extracted by guilt or habit. That is not selfishness. It is the ground from which real generosity grows.