We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.

The remark suggests that happiness is fragile and easily undone by comparison and craving. The moment we “wish to be happier,” we imply that what we have is insufficient; that dissatisfaction displaces present contentment and turns life into a restless project of improvement. Landor’s paradox is that the desire for greater happiness can function like a solvent, dissolving the happiness already available. The line critiques the modern habit of treating happiness as a measurable quantity to be maximized, and it recommends an ethic of attention and gratitude: to secure joy, one must resist the impulse to audit it and demand more.