Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”
- Source
- Troilus and Cressida
- Date
- c. 1602
- Local voice
- Fictional character · Cressida
Meaning of “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in…”
Anticipation and active pursuit can carry more energy than possession itself, making the process part of the reward.
Where does it come from?
Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 2, Project Gutenberg #1528; Cressida speaks privately after Pandarus leaves. ‘Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing’ occurs in her reflection that people prize what is still ungained and that love can seem sweetest while desire is still suing; she then resolves to conceal her own love. It remains fictional dramatic psychology inside the play’s courtship plot, not a universal motivational or happiness law.
Why the local voice matters
Cressida says this in Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2, during her private reflection after Pandarus leaves.
