What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

Buscaglia frames “happiness” not as an esoteric formula but as a deliberate stance toward living. By saying the “secret” is no secret, he punctures the cultural tendency to treat fulfillment as hidden knowledge or a prize granted by circumstances. The hinge is “willingness”: happiness depends on an active choice to affirm life—engagement, openness, and responsibility—rather than passivity, cynicism, or withdrawal. The line also implies that people often already know what nourishes them (connection, purpose, love), but resist committing to it. In this view, happiness is less a discovery than a decision repeatedly enacted.