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

concerned, not the lives of the old. When the young
attempt to regulate the lives of the old, as, for
example, by objecting to the remarriage of a
widowed parent, they are quite as much in the
wrong as are the old who attempt to regulate the
lives of the young. Old and young alike, as soon as
years of discretion have been reached, have a right
to their own choices, and if necessary to their own
mistakes. Young people are ill-advised if they
yield to the pressure of the old in any vital matter.
Suppose, for example, that you are a young person
who wishes to go on the stage, and that your
parents oppose your wish, either on the ground that
the stage is immoral or on the ground that it is
socially inferior. They may bring every kind of
pressure to bear; they may tell you that they will
cast you off if you ignore their commands; they may
say that you will certainly repent within a few
years; they may mention whole strings of horrid
examples of young persons who have been rash
enough to do what you contemplate doing and came
to a bad end in consequence. They may of course
be right in thinking that the stage is not the career