One element in all happiness is to feel that we have deserved it.

[Il entre dans la composition de tout bonheur l’idée de l’avoir mérité.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet

Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 “Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul],” ¶ 31 (1850 ed.) [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 4, ¶ 21]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Into the composition of every happiness enters the thought of having deserved it.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 5]

It is an element of all happiness to fancy that we deserve it.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 5]