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

rational ethic it will be held laudable to give
pleasure to anyone, even to oneself, provided there
is no counter-balancing pain to oneself or to
others. The ideally virtuous man, if we had got rid
of asceticism, would be the man who permits the
enjoyment of an good things whenever there is no
evil consequence to outweigh the enjoyment. Take
again the question of lying. I do not deny that there
is a great deal too much lying in the world, and that
we should all be the too much better for an
increase of truthfulness, but I do deny, as I think
every rational person must, that lying is in no
circumstances justified. I once in the course of a
country walk saw a tired fox at the last stages of
exhaustion still forcing himself to run. A few
minutes afterwards I saw the hunt. They asked me
if I had seen the fox, and I said I had. They asked
me which way he had gone, and I lied to them. I do
not think I should have been a better man if I had
told the truth.
But it is above all in the realm of sex that early
moral teaching does harm. If a child has been