But what bearing did happiness have on how one should live one’s life?

When all we have are these brief spans between our nonexistences, why not make the most of the life you’re living now? The price is worth it.

…in the same instant she saw that raw truth of him, she realized that that was all it was: something that was true for him. A man could want anything the world offered and still have a chance, no matter how small, of achieving it. For all he had acknowledged her as a being capable of desire, he hadn’t seen her reality: that she was a woman, trapped within the narrow confines of a woman’s life, and everything that could be wanted was all equally impossible.

Not-wanting is a desire too; it yields suffering just as much as wanting.