Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.
— Pascal, Pensées
****
At peace with itself and the world, the mind atrophies. It flourishes at the slightest contrariety.
— E.M. Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born
****
The most general survey shows us that the two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom. We may go further, and say that in the degree in which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the two.
— Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life
****
What a terribly dull affair, too, life must be for contented people! How heavy the time must hang upon their hands, and what on earth do they occupy their thoughts with, supposing that they have any?
— Jerome K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
****
Happiness writes in white ink on blank pages.
— Henry de Montherlant, Don Juan, Act III
****
And in this sense Dostoevsky is right when he says that the man who is happy is fulfilling the purpose of existence. Or again we could say that the man is fulfilling the purpose of existence who no longer needs to have any purpose except to live. That is to say, who is content.
— Wittgenstein, Notebooks 1914-1916
****
I think I’m dumb, maybe just happy.
— Kurt Cobain