C. S. Lewis on Happiness

That is the conclusion of the whole matter. God gives what He has, not what He has not: He gives the happiness that there is, not the happiness that is not. To be God—to be like God and to share His goodness in creaturely response—to be miserable—these are the only three alternatives. If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows—the only food that any possible universe grows—then we must starve eternally.

—C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (Harper One, 1996), 46.