
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
Un homme heureux est trop content du présent pour trop se soucier de l'avenir.
From "Mes Projets d'Avenir", a French essay written at age 17 for a school exam (18 September 1896). The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Vol. 1 (1987) Doc. 22.
1890s
Variant: A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.