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

contemplation of the world and in the use of his
energies to achieve external purposes than is the
man who is perpetually hampered by inward
conflicts. Nothing is so dull as to be encased in
self, nothing so exhilarating as to have attention
and energy directed outwards.
Our traditional morality has been unduly selfcentred,
and the conception of sin is part of this
unwise focusing of attention upon self. To those
who have never passed through the subjective
moods induced by this faulty morality, reason may
be unnecessary. But to those who have once
acquired the sickness, reason is necessary in
effecting a cure. And perhaps the sickness is a
necessary stage in mental development. I am
inclined to think that the man who has passed
beyond it by the help of reason has reached a
higher level than the man who has never
experienced either the sickness or the cure. The
hatred of reason which is common in our time is
very largely due to the fact that the operations of
reason are not conceived in a sufficiently