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

a day for self-examination. This is to my mind by
no means the best method, since it increases selfabsorption,
which is part of the disease to be
cured, for a harmonious personality is directed
outward. What I suggest is that a man should make
up his mind with emphasis as to what he rationally
believes, and should never allow contrary
irrational beliefs to pass unchallenged or obtain a
hold over him, however brief. This is a question of
reasoning with himself in those moments in which
he is tempted to become infantile, but the
reasoning, if it is sufficiently emphatic, may be
very brief. The time involved, therefore, should be
negligible.
There is in many people a dislike of rationality,
and where this exists the kind of thing that I have
been saying will seem irrelevant and unimportant.
There is an idea that rationality, if allowed free
play, will kill all the deeper emotions. This belief
appears to me to be due to an entirely erroneous
conception of the function of reason in human life.
It is not the business of reason to generate