Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it.

Davies treats happiness not as a goal to be pursued head-on, but as an indirect result of living well—engaging in meaningful work, relationships, and purpose. By calling it a “by-product,” he suggests that the more one tries to extract happiness as an entitlement, the more elusive it becomes. His wry nod to temperament and even “glandular” causes undercuts moralizing: happiness is partly biological and circumstantial, not purely a matter of willpower. The closing advice—stop worrying about not being happy—implies that anxious self-monitoring can worsen dissatisfaction, while acceptance and attention to life’s concrete tasks may allow contentment to arise naturally.