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

fundamental way. The man divided against himself
looks for excitement and distraction; he loves
strong passions, not for sound reasons, but because
for the moment they take him outside himself and
prevent the painful necessity of thought. Any
passion is to him a form of intoxication, and since
he cannot conceive of fundamental happiness, all
relief from pain appears to him solely possible in
the form of intoxication. This, however, is the
symptom of a deepseated malady. Where there is
no such malady, the greatest happiness comes with
the most complete possession of one’s faculties. It
is in the moments when the mind is most active and
the fewest things are forgotten that the most intense
joys are experienced. This, indeed, is one of the
best touchstones of happiness. The happiness that
requires intoxication of no matter what sort is a
spurious and unsatisfying kind. The happiness that
is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the
fullest exercise of our faculties, and the fullest
realisation of the world in which we live.