“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”
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Aldous Huxley 290
English writer 1894–1963Related quotes

Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853)
Source: Bartleby the Scrivener

“Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability.”
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Vol. I, p. 12
1980s, Letters to the Schools (1981, 1985)

Variant: Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“Besides, we should never attempt to balance anybody's misery against somebody else's happiness.”
Source: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), pp. 486-487