It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.

The line contrasts passive receipt of happiness with active self-cultivation. Read in a broadly Kantian key, it suggests that human flourishing is not something simply bestowed by providence or luck; it is something for which agents bear responsibility through the use of reason, self-discipline, and the ordering of their lives. The emphasis on “make ourselves happy” aligns with Kant’s moral psychology in which autonomy and self-legislation are central: even if happiness is a natural end, it is not achieved by mere inclination but by deliberate agency. Still, without a secure source, it is difficult to say whether Kant meant “happiness” in his technical sense (Glückseligkeit) or in a more popular, devotional register.