HAPPINESS,
LACK OF

Imperial power is an ocean of miseries.

Marcus Aurelius

If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

Montesquieu

In a word, I do not live: I am dead before my time. I have no interest in the world. Everything conspires to embitter my life. My life is a continual death.

Mme de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress and favorite