The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

teaching are devoid of all rational foundation and
such as cannot be applied to the ordinary
behaviour of ordinary men. A man who uses what
is called ‘bad language’, for example, is not from a
rational point of view any worse than a man who
does not. Nevertheless, practically everybody in
trying to imagine a saint would consider abstinence
from swearing as essential. Considered in the light
of reason this is simply silly. The same applies to
alcohol and tobacco. With regard to alcohol the
feeling does not exist in Southern countries, and
indeed there is an element of impiety about it,
since it is known that Our Lord and the Apostles
drank wine. With regard to tobacco it is easier to
maintain a negative position since all the greatest
saints lived before its use was known. But here
also no rational argument is possible. The view
that no saint would smoke is based in the last
analysis upon the view that no saint would do
anything solely because it gave him pleasure. This
ascetic element in ordinary morality has become
almost unconscious but it operates in all kinds of
ways that make our moral code irrational. In a