Happy is the country which has no history, and happier still is that musical comedyabout which one can find nothing to say.

-Agate,James
  In the Sunday Times.

Il y aura toujours un chien perdu quelque part qui m'empe"  chera d'e"  tre heureux. There will always be a lost dog somewhere that will prevent me being happy.

-Anouilh,Jean
  La Sauvage, act 3.

But if marriage be such a blessed state, how comes it, may you say, that there are so few happy marriages? Now in answer to this, is it not to be wondered that so few succeed, we should rather be surprized to find so manydo, considering how imprudently menengage, the motive they act by, and the very strange conduct they observe throughout.

-Astell, Mary
  Some Reflections upon MarriageOccasion'd by the Duke and Duchess of Mazarine's Case which is also consider'd, preface (1706 edn).

I have been very happy†serving in a state of life to which I had never expected to be called.

-1st Earl
  As It Happened.

  Sob, heavy world, Sob as you spin Mantled in mist, remote from the happy.

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
^6  The Age of  Anxiety, pt.4,'The Dirge'.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
  'The Unknown Citizen'.

   Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it; but if they think with themselves what other men thinkof them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.11,'Of Great Place'.

   She's private to herself, and best of knowledge Whom she will make so happy as to sigh for.

-Beaumont, Francis
c.1607  The Knight of the Burning Pestle, act1.

Heureux, qui comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage, Ou comme cestuy la'   qui conquit la toison, Et puis est retourne¤  , plein d'usage et raison, Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son a"  ge! Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has taken a wondrous journey Or has won the Golden Fleece, And then returns home wise and useful To live in his homeland the rest of his days.

-Bellay,Joachim du
  Les Regrets, no.31.

Lo, children are an heritage of the L: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDPsalms127:3^5.

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that gettethunderstanding.For themerchandise of it isbetter than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the thingsthoucanst desirearenottobe compared untoher. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs 3:13^18.

Beatus vir qui timet Dominum, in mandatis ejus volet nimis! Happy is the man who fears the Lord, who is only too willing to follow his orders.

-Bible (Vulgate)
Psalm111:1 (Psalm112:1  Authorized Version).

Nam in omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum est genus infortunii, fuisse felicem. In all adversity of fortune, the most wretched kind is once to have been happy. 138

-Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus
  De consolatione philosophiae, bk.2, pt.4 (translated by V E Watts).

If you are as happy, my dear Sir, on entering this house as I am on leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in the country.

-Buchanan,James
Saidonwelcoming his successor,  Abraham Lincoln, to the White House.

   Youask ifthey werehappy.Thisisnot a characteristicof a European. To be contentedöthat's for the cows.

-Chanel, Gabrielle known as  Coco
Quoted in  A Madsen Coco Chanel (1990), ch.35.

Nessun maggior dolore, Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria. There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. 252

-Dante Alighieri originally Durante
c.1320  Divina Commedia,'Inferno', canto 5, l.121^3.

Nature meant me A wife, a silly, harmless, household dove, Fond without art, and kind without deceit; But Fortune, that has made a mistress of me, Has thrust me out to the wide world, unfurnish'd Of falsehood to be happy.

-Dryden,John
  Cleopatra.  All for Love,or The World Well Lost, act 4.

Happy, happy, happy, pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair.

-Dryden,John
  Alexander's Feast, l.4^7.

I die happy.

-Fox, CharlesJames
  Last words. Quoted in Lord John Russell Life and Times of C  J Fox, vol.3 (1860), ch.9.

Anyone happy in this age and place Is daft or corrupt. Better to abdicate From a material and spiritual terrain Fit only for barbarians.

-Fuller, Roy Broadbent
  'Translation'.