Happiness is always a by-product

[spiros]

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
Robertson Davies

[billberg23]

Happiness is a by-product of function in a battle context:  hence the fatal error of utopians.
William S. Burroughs, Place of Dead Roads

[spiros]

(It sounds like we should start quotation retort contests!)

[billberg23]

Sorry, Spiro, didn't mean it as a retort — only as an extension of the "by-product" theme.  It's so amusing to think of happiness as a "product," anyway, isn't it?

[spiros]

No, I did not see it as a retort either (more like a quotational quasi-"synonym"); I just thought it would be a funny thing to do.