Can we try to be kind, try to be virtuous, try to be happy? Well, yes. Trying is always an option. But what has trying ever accomplished? Turn away from the man whose best counsel is to try harder. He’s an emissary of miserableness.
We cannot try to be happy. In this endeavour, trying is failing. What we can do is investigate why we are unhappy, to see how our dream of happiness depends on some person, situation or circumstance. Dependency is misery. True happiness comes from within. It already is.
Miserable men are quite literally misers. Nothing flows out of them; they’re unable to give. Misery cannot be gotten out of except by turning around 180 degrees and going in the opposite direction.
No one knows misery better than the man who is searching for happiness.
Men's Work 