The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.

The aphorism contrasts two approaches to happiness: arranging life so one always does preferred activities versus cultivating an attitude that finds value in whatever work or duty one must do. It implies that lasting contentment depends less on external freedom and more on an internal capacity for acceptance, reframing, and commitment—an idea akin to Stoic and Victorian moral traditions that prize character over circumstance. Read this way, the line encourages agency at the level of perception: by investing attention, pride, and meaning in one’s tasks, even routine labor can become satisfying. It also cautions against a restless pursuit of novelty, suggesting that preference-following alone may not yield stability or fulfillment.