“Used in a personal sense, the phrase 'achieve an end' seemed to her a small-minded snare. She preferred the word life, and, on rare occasions, happiness.”

“She had never imagined she had the power to make someone else so happy. And not a magical power, either--a purely human one.”

“Will a man who finds heaven while searching for hell be happy? No, he will not because he found what he was not looking for, not what he was looking for!”

“Happiness does not come from a job. It comes from knowing what you truly value, and behaving in a way that’s consistent with those beliefs.”

“Like love, like talent, like any other virtue, like anything else in this life, happiness needs to be nurtured - this is the truth of the whole matter.”

“Just do what you want to make you happy, even if they have something to say and judge you, still choose to be a good person.”

“I want to feel what I feel. What's mine. Even if it's not happiness, whatever that means. Because you're all you've got.”

“With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy. ”

“We are often insane with happiness. We are also very unhappy for reasons neither of us can do anything about. Like being separated.”

“Not that happiness is dull. Only that it doesn't tell well. And of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story.”