Betrand Russell 1872-1970

In 1930, he published The Conquest of Happiness, which examined why society seemed to be
so miserable. In the preface, he says the book contains merely “common sense,” but that the
principles “increased my own happiness whenever I have acted in accordance with them.”
He first identified some types that were causing unhappiness in his age: Meaninglessness,
competition, boredom, fatigue, envy, persecution mania and fear of public opinion.
“My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day unhappiness from which most
people in civilized countries suffer, and which is all the more unbearable because, having no
obvious external cause, it appears inescapable,” he writes.
The causes of the various kinds of unhappiness lie partly in the social system, partly in individual
psychology, which, of course, is itself to a considerable extent a product of the social system.
Causes of Unhappiness
What makes people unhappy?
The causes of these various kinds of unhappiness lie partly in the social system, partly in
individual psychology -- which, of course, is itself to a considerable extent a product of the
social system.
I believe this unhappiness to be very largely due to mistaken views of the world, mistaken
'ethics, mistaken habits of life, leading to destruction of that natural zest and appetite for
possible things upon which all happiness, whether of men or animals, ultimately depends.
These are matters which lie within the power of the individual.
 Self-absorbed persons: the sinner, the narcissist, and the megalomaniac. The cure to self-
absorption is to turn your attention to the external world, to friends, and state of the world.
 Narcissist feels the need to be admired and loved. Vanity, when it passes beyond a point,
kills pleasure in every activity for its own sake, and thus leads inevitably to listlessness and
boredom. Often its source is diffidence, and its cure lies in the growth of self-respect.
 Megalomaniac seeks to be powerful and to be feared. Alexander the Great was the greatest
conqueror known to fame; he decided that he was a god. Was he a happy man? His
drunkenness, his furious rages, his indifference to women, and his claim to divinity, suggest
that he was not happy.
Byronic Unhappiness
It is common in our day, as it has been in many other periods of the world's history, to suppose
that those among us who are wise have seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and
have become aware that there is nothing left to live for. The men who hold this view are
genuinely unhappy, but they are proud of their unhappiness, which they consider to be the only
rational attitude for an enlightened man.
 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
 The man who acquires easily things for which he feels only a very moderate desire
concludes that the attainment of desire does not bring happiness. To be without some of
the things you want is an indispensible part of happiness.
 Love a source of delight, but its absence is a source of pain. Love is to be valued because it
enhances all the best pleasures, such as music, and sunrise in mountains, and the sea under
the full moon.
Competition
Struggle for ‘life’ or success. What people fear when they engage in the struggle is not that they
will fail to get their breakfast next morning, but that they will fail to outshine their neighbours.
Such a person knows nothing about the lives of his children and his wife. He is engaged in a race
that has only the grave as the end goal.

 Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it
must inevitably leave him a prey to boredom.
Boredom and Excitement
One of the essentials of boredom consists in the contrast between present circumstances and
some other more agreeable circumstances. The opposite of boredom, in a word, is not
pleasure, but excitement.
We are less bored than our ancestors were, but we are more afraid of boredom. We have come
to know, or rather to believe, that boredom is not part of the natural lot of man, but can be
avoided by a sufficiently vigorous pursuit of excitement.

 A life too full of excitement is an exhausting life, in which continually stronger stimuli are
needed to give the thrill that has come to be thought an essential part of pleasure.
 A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet
that true joy can live.
Fatigue
Purely physical fatigue, provided it is not excessive, tends if anything to be a cause of
happiness; it leads to sound sleep and a good appetite, and gives zest to the pleasures that are
possible on holidays. But when it is excessive it becomes a very grave evil.
Nervous fatigue is common in advanced communities. Working hours, constant noise and
presence of strangers, hurry to get to work, and fear of being fired. Fatigue is due to worry. The
result of all this is that when sound success comes a man is already a nervous wreck, so
accustomed to anxiety that he cannot shake off the habit of it when the need for it is past.

 A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which
is causing the anxiety.
Envy
Envy is one form of a vice, partly moral, partly intellectual, which consists in seeing things never
in themselves, but only in their relations.

 Merely to realize the causes of one's own envious feelings is to take a long step towards
curing them.
 To find the right road out of this despair civilized man must enlarge his heart as he has
enlarged his mind.
The Sense of Sin
The word 'conscience' covers as a matter of fact, several different feelings; the simplest of these
is the fear of being found out. Closely allied with this feeling is the fear of becoming an outcast
from the herd.

 The sense of sin has its roots in the unconscious. Infantile moral teachings play a big role.
 I am not suggesting that a man should be destitute of morality; I am only suggesting that he
should be destitute of superstitious morality, which is a very different thing.
Persecution Mania
We are all familiar with the type of person, man or woman, who, according to his own account,
is perpetually the victim of ingratitude, unkindness, and treachery. Persecution mania is always
rooted in a too exaggerated conception of our own merits. We think we have no faults.

 The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to
yourself. The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect
others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't
imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to
persecute you.
Fear of Public Opinion
Very few people can be happy unless on the whole their way of life & their outlook on the
world is approved by other people.

 The only ultimate cure for this evil is, however, an increase of toleration on the part of
the public.
Is Happiness Still Possible?
Happiness is of two sorts. Perhaps the simplest way to describe the difference between the two
sorts of happiness is to say that one sort is open to any human being, and the other only to
those who can read and write i.e. of the heart and head.
The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions
to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
Zest
What hunger is in relation to food, zest is in relation to life? Some people eat food with a sense
of duty, some are epicure who think food is not cooked well enough, some find every meal a
bore, some are gormandizers who fall upon the food eagerly, and finally there are those who
begin with a sound appetite, are glad of their food, eat until they have had enough, and then
stop.
Life could never be boring to a man to whom casual objects offer a wealth of interest.
The more things a man is interested in, the more opportunities of happiness he has and the less
he is at the mercy of fate, since if he loses one thing he can fall back upon another. Life is too
short to be interested in everything, but it is good to be interested in as many things as are
necessary to fill our days.
Affection
It is affection received, not affection given, that causes this sense of security, though it arises
most of all from affection which is reciprocal.
The best type of affection is reciprocally life-giving; each receives affection with joy and gives it
without effort, and each finds the whole world more interesting in consequence of the
existence of this reciprocal happiness.
The Family
Affection of parents for children and of children for parents is capable of being one of the
greatest sources of happiness, but in fact at the present day the relations of parents and
children are, in nine cases out of ten, a source of unhappiness to both parties.
Parents are no longer sure of their rights as against their children; children no longer feel that
they owe respect to their parents. The virtue of obedience, which was formerly exacted
without question, has become unfashionable.
Parental affection is a special kind of feeling which the normal human being experiences
towards his/her own children, but not towards any other human being.
It is in times of misfortune that parents are most to be relied upon, in illness, and even in
disgrace if the parents are of the right sort.
The primitive root of the pleasure of parenthood is two-fold. On the one hand there is the
feeling of part of one's own body externalized, prolonging its life beyond the death of the rest
of one's body; on the other hand there is an intimate blend of power and tenderness.
Work
Work, therefore, is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom. Second, it gives
chances of success and opportunities for ambition.
When work is interesting, it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere
relief from tedium. Skill and construction make work interesting.
A man who runs three-mile races will cease to find pleasure in this occupation when he passes
the age at which he can beat his own previous record.
Watching games, going to the theatre, playing golf and reading are activities that do not require
will and quick decision.
The Happy Man
Happiness, as is evident, depends partly upon external circumstances and partly upon oneself.
The happy man is the man who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests.