Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.

The line argues that happiness is not a primary goal one can seize directly, but an indirect result (“byproduct”) of living with function (effective action), purpose (direction or meaning), and conflict (struggle, resistance, or risk). The second clause—“those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war”—casts the direct pursuit of happiness as a kind of evasion: wanting the rewards of life (victory) without engaging the necessary difficulties (war). Read in a Burroughs-adjacent key, it also critiques the modern promise of effortless satisfaction, implying that attempts to bypass struggle can lead to emptiness or self-deception rather than genuine fulfillment.