To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty. Samuel Butler
Don’t worry, be happy. Bobby McFerrin, various attributions inc Meher Baba
Reader must understand that in possession and thraldom of a nymphet the enchanted traveller stands, as it were, beyond happiness. For there is no other bliss on earth comparable to that of fondling a nymphet. It is hors concours, that bliss, it belongs to another class, another plane of sensitivity. Despite our tiffs, despite her nastiness, despite all the fuss and faces she made, and the vulgarity, and the danger and the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise – a paradise whose skies were the colour of hell-flames – but still a paradise. Vladimir Nabokov
The secret to a happiness is a small ego. And a big wallet. Good wine helps, too. But that’s not really a secret, is it? Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied? William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
Have you ever thought right I mean you don’t know but you might already have had the happiest moment in your whole fucking life and all you’ve got to look forward to is sickness and purgatory. Naked 1993 starring David Thewlis & Lesley Sharp & Katrin Cartlidge & Greg Cruttwell & Claire Skinner & Peter Wight & Ewen Bremner & Elizabeth Barrington & Gina McKee & Darren Turnstall et al, director Mike Leigh, Johnny
You make me very happy, Ray. Ray Donovan s6e3: He Be Tight; He Be Mean, Samantha, Showtime 2018
People tell me because I have this case against the city [New York] I’m all right. But I’m not all right. I’m messed up. I know that I might see some money from this case, but that’s not going to help me mentally. I’m mentally scarred right now. That’s how I feel. Because there are certain things that changed about me and they might not go back … Before I went to jail, I didn’t know about a lot of stuff, and, now that I’m aware, I’m paranoid. I feel like I was robbed of my happiness. Kalief Browder, suicide aged 22
True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy. John Updike
Many count the years since their conversion, but their lives often show little sign of improvement. If it is dreadful to die, it is perhaps more dangerous to live long. Happy is the man who keeps the hour of death always in mind, and daily prepares himself to die. Thomas a Kempis
Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change. Bertrand Russell
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. Bertrand Russell
I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it? John Ruskin
We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. Anne Frank
For in all adversity of fortune the worst sort of misery is to have been happy. Boethius
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813