“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.”

“Happiness," wrote Yeats, "is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing." Contemporary researchers make the same argument: that it isn't goal attainment but the process of striving after goals-that is, growth-that brings happiness.”

“It is not by sin that we attain happiness, nor is it by virtue, nor is it by that kind of divine fire by which one makes great instinctive decisions and which is neither good not evil. It is by none of these things that one reaches happiness. One never reaches happiness.”

“Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.”

“Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him.”

“‎We are neither the pawns of devils, nor the enemies of virtue. We are simply curious, pragmatic, and rebellious -- too curious to be timid, too defiant for morality, and too pragmatic to wreck shit "just because.”