Source: Little Women
“If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.”
“If a storyteller worried about the facts - my dear Lucian, how could he ever get at the truth?”
Source: The Arkadians
“How happy could I be with either,
Were t' other dear charmer away!”
Act II, scene ii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
Variant: How happy could I be with either,
Were t' other dear charmer away!
Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 6
Context: While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.
Lord Meher http://www.lordmeher.org/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=6742, by Bhau Kalchuri, pp. 5770, 5970, 6742. The famous Bobby McFerrin song was based on this phrase often used by Meher Baba.
Variants:
Don't Worry; be Happy! Remember Me; I will help you.
As quoted in Showers of Grace (1984) by Bal Natu, p. 92
Do your best, then don't worry, be happy. Leave the rest to me.
As quoted in The Homeopathic Revolution : Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy (2007) by Dana Ullman, p. 367.
General sources
Variant: Don't worry, be happy.
“When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.”
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
