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

mistakes the rhetoric of partisanship for a genuine
analysis of motives. Disgusted and disillusioned,
he retires from the world after the world has
retired from him, and regrets that he ever attempted
so thankless a task as the pursuit of the public
good.
These illustrations suggest four general maxims,
which will prove an adequate preventive of
persecution mania if their truth is sufficiently
realised. The first is: remember that your motives
are not always as altruistic as they seem to
yourself. The second is: don’t overestimate your
own merits. The third is: don’t expect others to
take as much interest in you as you do yourself.
And the fourth is: don’t imagine that most people
give enough thought to you to have any special
desire to persecute you. I shall say a few words
about each of these maxims in turn.
Suspicion of one’s own motives is especially
necessary for the philanthropist and the executive;
such people have a vision of how the world, or