Courtesans Quote by Honoré de Balzac

“It is a kind of happiness to know just how unhappy we could be.”

— La Rochefoucauld

“Do you want to know what happiness is? Happiness is the absence of unpleasant information.”

— William T. Vollmann

“It was a smile of total reassurance and gave all who saw it a feeling of intense well-being. Not joy, but something akin to…

— William Joyce

“I swear I am happy. I have realized that the only happiness in this world is to observe, to spy, to watch, to scrutinize…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“Oh, you knew exactly what I meant. Not that happiness is dull. Only that it doesn't tell well. And one of our consuming diversions…

— Lionel Shriver

“She knows what it is to be sad and miserable, but those emotions are almost enjoyable. They throw moments of happiness and laughter into…

— Simon Mawer

“There was a willful calm and happiness. I think people can decide to be happy. Maybe that was it.”

— Robert Reeves

“Her smile, though, no, it was her laugh, a dusky, deep cascading laughter that caught the joy, implied and mocked the sorrow in every…

— Lucia Berlin

“How were we to know we were happy?”

— Margaret Atwood

“She, who knows what happiness is, brings joy, peace and happiness!”

— Petra Hermans

“I believe that being happy is the only important thing. Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or torturous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet.…

— Joanne Harris

“But there was, she knew, something else. Happiness, she supposed. Whatever that might be. What, exactly, she wondered, was happiness. Very positively she wanted…

— Nella Larsen