“Happiness, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.”

“All the suffering there is in this world arises from wishing our self to be happy. All the happiness there is in this world arises from wishing others to be happy.”

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more”

“Love's great (and sole) originality is to make happiness indistinct from misery.”

“True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.”

“Bride, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.”

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”

“… the painful intensity of my sensations, even when they're happy ones; the blissful intensity of my sensations, even when they're sad.”

“The happiness which comes from long practice, which leads to the end of suffering, which at first is like poison, but at last like nectar - this kind of happiness arises from the serenity of one's own mind.”

“"The bitterest sorrow that man can know is to aspire to do much and to achieve nothing"… so Herodotus relates that a Persian said to a Theban at a banquet (book ix., chap. xvi.). And it is true. With knowledge and desire we can embrace everything, or almost everything; with the will nothing, or almost nothing. And contemplation is not happiness — no! not if this contemplation implies impotence. And out of this collision between our knowledge and our power pity arises.”