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

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very much less of this on the part of women thanthere was fifty years ago. I should say that atpresent among educated people the sex life of menis more contorted and more poisoned by the senseof sin than that of women.There is beginning to be widespread awareness,though not of course on the part of publicauthorities, of the evils of traditional sex educationin regard to the very young. The right rule issimple: until a child is nearing the age of pubertyteach him or her no sexual morality whatever, andcarefully avoid instilling the idea that there isanything disgusting in the natural bodily functions.As the time approaches when it becomes necessaryto give moral instruction, be sure that it is rational,and that at every point you can give good groundsfor what you say. But it is not on education that Iwish to speak in this book. In this book I amconcerned rather with what the adult can do tominimise the evil effects of unwise education incausing an irrational sense of sin.
The problem here is the same as has confronted usin earlier chapters, namely that of compelling theunconscious to take note of the rational beliefs thatgovern our conscious thought. Men must not allowthemselves to be swayed by their moods, believingone thing at one moment and another at another.The sense of sin is especially prominent atmoments when the conscious will is weakened byfatigue, by illness, by drink, or by any other cause.What a man feels at these moments (unless causedby drink) is supposed to be a revelation from hishigher self. ‘The devil was sick, the devil a saintwould be.’ But it is absurd to suppose thatmoments of weakness give more insight thanmoments of strength. In moments of weakness it isdifficult to resist infantile suggestions, but there isno reason whatsoever for regarding suchsuggestions as preferable to the belief of the adultman when in full possession of his faculties. On thecontrary, what a man deliberately believes with hiswhole reason when he is vigorous ought to be tohim the norm as to what he had better believe at alltimes. It is quite possible to overcome infantile
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This book is not addressed to the l
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Chapter 1: What makespeople unhappy
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upon them and stamps their features
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herself? In discussing this problem
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knowledge about something or other
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may feel so completely thwarted tha
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Chapter 2: Byronic UnhappinessIt is
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In an argument of this sort we must
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If one were to attempt to set up th
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summer, yet return again unto the p
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‘haunted by ghosts from a dead wo
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money and neglect the cure of souls
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not yet accustomed to one which is
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sides is really admirable. It is bo
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To say shortly why one values love
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friendliness required for cooperati
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the same. The reason for this is no
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coteries. Literary coteries have no
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him how many men he has known in hi
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feel tired yet. How many hours it m
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demand that he should make much mon
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fears are probably inevitable in th
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really knows much medicine, or whet
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The competitive habit of mind easil
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but not one of my guides knew the n
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muscles and intent will, to make a
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circumstances and some other more a
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time’. This meant that paterfamil
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As we rise in the social scale the
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moments more frequent than prohibit
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very favourably impressed, but you
Page 64 and 65: course, for somewhat rare occasions
Page 66 and 67: is slow; autumn and winter are as e
Page 68 and 69: the civilised expression of the sam
Page 70 and 71: Chapter 5: FatigueFatigue is of man
Page 72 and 73: inhibiting it is that they feel a g
Page 74 and 75: work for a living. To a great exten
Page 76 and 77: causing the anxiety. I have done in
Page 78 and 79: for example, elaborate computations
Page 80 and 81: understood if rational convictions
Page 82 and 83: you will find that your worry disap
Page 84 and 85: conceal the fact if she wishes men
Page 86 and 87: present, since it comes under the h
Page 88 and 89: Chapter 6: EnvyNext to worry probab
Page 90 and 91: occasion to visit an aristocratic c
Page 92 and 93: envious person wish to inflict misf
Page 94 and 95: is to have parents without much par
Page 96 and 97: has something else. Envy, in fact,
Page 98 and 99: do not believe that any peacock env
Page 100 and 101: and the equalitarian doctrine of de
Page 102 and 103: children in what he feels to be the
Page 104 and 105: they are not performing gymnastic f
Page 106 and 107: Chapter 7: The sense of sinConcerni
Page 108 and 109: passion into some sensual irregular
Page 110 and 111: his nurse. He learned before that a
Page 112 and 113: rational ethic it will be held laud
Page 116 and 117: suggestions of the unconscious, and
Page 118 and 119: these are not the things that make
Page 120 and 121: something lacking in self-respect.
Page 122 and 123: a day for self-examination. This is
Page 124 and 125: contemplation of the world and in t
Page 126 and 127: Chapter 8: Persecution maniaIn its
Page 128 and 129: suspicious of those who by their ow
Page 130 and 131: remember the ninety-nine times when
Page 132 and 133: Then there is the inventor who has
Page 134 and 135: pure as we imagine them to be. Love
Page 136 and 137: mistakes the rhetoric of partisansh
Page 138 and 139: the right. Idealism causes simple m
Page 140 and 141: we have already said. But merits ot
Page 142 and 143: sure to be the source of an unhappy
Page 144 and 145: importance imagines that others are
Page 146 and 147: Chapter 9: Fear of public opinionVe
Page 148 and 149: acquainted were representative of t
Page 150 and 151: immoral. If he desires any career,
Page 152 and 153: be found by which the tyranny of pu
Page 154 and 155: conform or manage to avoid any shar
Page 156 and 157: desirable that the social sense sho
Page 158 and 159: concerned, not the lives of the old
Page 160 and 161: expenditure. Very many people spend
Page 162 and 163: become a foolish idea, since there
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to be forbidden that makes life int
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Chapter 10: Is happinessstill possi
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happiness of my gardener is of the
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a satisfaction so profound that the
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of these misfortunes - the former i
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and, in so far as these activities
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have I have always understood that
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performed by a machine. The ultimat
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this belief invariably ensures perf
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perhaps most, not a source of funda
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archaeologist in ruins, and this in
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Chapter 11: ZestIn this chapter I p
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his superior. It seems to them vulg
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sausages innumerable; the other sai
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How extraordinarily different, agai
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their zest at the same time, though
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may think that the man with zest wh
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and with the respect of the society
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as to justify the sacrifice of ever
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the man who runs mad risks in aerop
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enterprises cannot be managed in th
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expended. Zest demands energy more
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search. He will find that they are
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affection by benevolent actions bec
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comes more than anything else from
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he has to venture forth into the st
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very often a camouflage for possess
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at best a consolation. If you are s
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one victim after another, but while
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enjoined both in the name of morali
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Chapter 13: The familyOf all the in
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inclination for sexual adventure, w
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perform herself a thousand trivial
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The little boys of London townThey
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The slaves may possibly have hated
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natural affection and become shy; u
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towards parenthood has retained eno
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therefore, if the white races are t
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may gratify this feeling through hi
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though in a modified and less defin
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any real reason why parents should
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conflicting emotions. In this confl
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marriage, and in friendship also, t
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as the acquisition of book-learning
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persons. But there should be no con
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Chapter 14: WorkWhether work should
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to do with his days. With this adva
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when work is interesting, it is cap
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on improving, at any rate until he
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he has spoken precisely and with ze
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forms. The creation of an organisat
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corporations directed by Philistine
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achieve happiness than the latter,
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more disinterestedly. Even if he ha
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his day’s work. They should not i
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absorbed in our own pursuits, our o
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that it has become too much a train
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intelligent and the most obscuranti
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impersonal interests, there is anot
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when it comes, it is wise to have c
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Chapter 16:Effort and resignationTh
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cases are exceptional. Most people
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members of that sex require, as a r
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is the man totally indifferent to h
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contemplation is the true end of ma
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those minor troubles which make up,
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tedious neighbour, he considers tha
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face the truth about ourselves; thi
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happiness of most men, but these ar
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continues to be self-centred and th
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stamp-collecting’ and thereupon s
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In a certain sense he is right, tha
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The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

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