From Nobody's Home by Dubravka Ugresic

I am not a historian of ideas, so I can't actually say how personal happiness has rated at other times. The history of the idea is a long one: eudaimonia was a preoccupation of the Greeks; Aristotle interpreted happiness as the realization of human potential. The "pursuit of happiness" shows up in the American Declaration of Independence. Before their right to pursue happiness was legitimized, people were caught up in meeting their obligations, their duties to God and people, for centuries. The questiom of happiness was something left to the elite: the gods, philosophers, poets and sovereigns.