By many a happy accident.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Happy am I; from care I'm free!

Why ar' n't they all contented like me?

Opera of La Bayadère.

But who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined

Great issues, good or bad for humankind,

Is happy as a lover.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Character of the Happy Warrior.

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it;

We are happy now because God wills it.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Vision of Sir Launfal. Prelude to Part First.

She what was honour knew,

And with obsequious majesty approv'd

My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower

I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven

And happy constellations on that hour

Shed their selectest influence; the earth

Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;

Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs

Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings

Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 508.

How happy could I be with either,

Were t' other dear charmer away!

John Gay (1688-1732): The Beggar's Opera. Act ii. Sc. 2.

O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such a night,

Though 't were to buy a world of happy days.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4.

But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd

Than that which withering on the virgin thorn

Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.

Farewell happy fields,

Where joy forever dwells: hail, horrors!

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 249.

Thrice happy he whose name has been well spelt

In the despatch: I knew a man whose loss

Was printed Grove, although his name was Grose.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto viii. Stanza 18.

Happy he

With such a mother! faith in womankind

Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high

Comes easy to him; and tho' he trip and fall,

He shall not blind his soul with clay.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Princess. Part vii. Line 308.

Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!

Ah, fields beloved in vain!

Where once my careless childhood stray'd,

A stranger yet to pain!

I feel the gales that from ye blow

A momentary bliss bestow.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 2.

How happy is he born or taught,

That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639): The Character of a Happy Life.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Eloisa to Abelard. Line 207.

Ye Gods! annihilate but space and time,

And make two lovers happy.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Martinus Scriblerus on the Art of Sinking in Poetry. Chap. xi.

Happy man be his dole!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 4.

Happy man, happy dole.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.

The loss of wealth is loss of dirt,

As sages in all times assert;

The happy man's without a shirt.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Be Merry Friends.

O Mirth and Innocence! O milk and water!

Ye happy mixtures of more happy days.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Beppo. Stanza 80.

Live while ye may,

Yet happy pair.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 533.

A happy soul, that all the way

To heaven hath a summer's day.

Richard Crashaw (Circa 1616-1650): In Praise of Lessius's Rule of Health.

Thou hast been called, O sleep! the friend of woe;

But 't is the happy that have called thee so.

Robert Southey (1774-1843): The Curse of Kehama. Canto xv. Stanza 11.

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call to-day his own;

He who, secure within, can say,

To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Imitation of Horace. Book iii. Ode 29, Line 65.

Happy the man whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Ode on Solitude.

Oh, pity human woe!

'T is what the happy to the unhappy owe.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book vii. Line 198.

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise?—thus leave

Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades?

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 269.

Didst thou never hear

That things ill got had ever bad success?

And happy always was it for that son

Whose father for his hoarding went to hell?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Happy who in his verse can gently steer

From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.

Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux (1636-1711): The Art of Poetry. Canto i. Line 75.

Ah, happy years! once more who would not be a boy?

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto ii. Stanza 23.