Happiness lies, first of all, in health.

Curtis’s line asserts a hierarchy of human goods: before wealth, status, or even intellectual and moral satisfactions, basic physical well-being is the condition that makes most other forms of happiness possible. The phrasing “first of all” does not deny that happiness can include love, purpose, or virtue; it argues that health is foundational—both as a source of immediate comfort and as the enabling capacity for work, enjoyment, and resilience. Read this way, the quote functions as a practical moral reminder: to neglect health is to undermine the very platform on which other aspirations rest.