'Happy', my brother? First of all, what difference is it whether thou art happy or not! Today becomes Yesterday so fast, all Tomorrows become Yesterdays; and then there is no question whatever of the 'happiness', but quite another question." Byron.

  I think the answer to Byron's question is that happiness and pleasure are not obtained by pursuit, but are a by-product of duty, concern for others and seeking "The man of sorrows."

Thomas Carlyle speaks to man's unhappiness this way, -- "Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning cannot quite bury under the Finite."

The happiness, pleasures and wants of the person apart from God and duty know no bounds. Carlyle put it this way, "For man's permanent satisfaction and saturation, he needs simply this and no more and no less: God's infinite Universe altogether to himself, therein to enjoy infinitely, and fill every wish as fast as it rose. Oceans of Hockheimer wine, and a throat like a stork to enjoy it, but no sooner is the ocean filled and he grumbles that it might have been a better vintage. Try him with half of a Universe, of an Omnipotence, he sets to quarreling with the proprietor of the other half, and declares himself the most maltreated of men. Always there is a black spot in our sunshine."
So then, what shall we say? "Love not pleasure, love God. This is the everlasting Yea, wherein all contradiction is solved; wherein whoso walks and works, it is well with him."