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

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

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.”
Tota felicitas aut infelicitas in hoc solo sita est; videlicet in qualitate obiecti, cui adhaeremus amore.

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

“Why I do things? Because I get great happiness, and happiness is the thing which makes the love flow, which makes me love. I want to be happy. And that is why I consider myself as one of the most happiest men in the world, because I do these things. I give this Knowledge to people free of charge. And people when they get this Knowledge feel great happiness. That makes me happy, too.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

“In our hearts there is a ruthless dictator, ready to contemplate the misery of a thousand strangers if it will ensure the happiness of the few we love.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

“And thus the soul pities God and feels itself pitied by him; loves Him and feels loved by Him, sheltering its misery in the bosom of the eternal and infinite misery, which, in eternalizing itself and infinitizing itself, is the supreme happiness itself.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

“I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

“You can, t make yourself happy by causing other peoples misery

-Tyler Perry
The Family That Preys”

Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But, then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer, to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love, to be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy, therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness — I hope you're getting this down.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

“How to control my sex instinct so as to make it conduce my permanent happiness and not to disease, mental misery, and the wrecking of my career.”

Frank Crane (1861–1928) American Presbyterian minister