To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.

The line expresses a characteristically Deweyan, pragmatic view of happiness: it is not primarily a private feeling or a reward for virtue, but an outcome of effective “fit” between a person’s capacities and the social conditions that let those capacities be exercised. The first clause stresses self-discovery through experience—learning what one can do well and meaningfully. The second clause adds a social and institutional dimension: happiness depends on access to real opportunities (education, work, civic life), not merely on inner resolve. Read this way, the quote links personal fulfillment to democratic arrangements that cultivate talents and remove barriers to participation.