“Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you're so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness.”
"Sunday Morning".
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Robertson Davies 282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995Related quotes

"How The Churches Have Retarded Progress"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)

“… because if you can make yourself happy in the rain then you're doing pretty alright in life.”
Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Quoted by Bethanne Patrick for AOL Books in 2006.
Context: For me the most important thing was always that you have something in mind that you want to do, that you enjoy doing, because a lot of people have a job, but they're not happy. I think you have to think about what it is you really want to do in life and pursue that, and do it with fun; have a smile on your face, because then you're happy. You're happy and you can be open, you can be nice with people, and you have a different appearance and feeling of life than when you are in a job you hate. So for me that was always the most important thing.

“The hardest thing is to do something which is close to nothing because it is demanding all of you.”
"The Myths by Which We Live", in The Rotarian, Vol. 107, No. 3 (September 1965), p. 55
Variant: The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.

Concepts