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

perhaps most, not a source of fundamental
happiness, but a means of escape from reality, of
forgetting for the moment some pain too difficult to
be faced. Fundamental happiness depends more
than anything else upon what may be called a
friendly interest in persons and things.
A friendly interest in persons is a form of
affectionateness, but not the form which is grasping
and possessive and seeking always an emphatic
response. This latter form is very frequently a
source of unhappiness. The kind that makes for
happiness is the kind that likes to observe people
and finds pleasure in their individual traits, that
wishes to afford scope for the interests and
pleasures of those with whom it is brought into
contact without desiring to acquire power over
them or to secure their enthusiastic admiration. The
person whose attitude towards others is genuinely
of this kind will be a source of happiness and a
recipient of reciprocal kindness. His relations with
others, whether slight or serious, will satisfy both
his interests and his affections; he will not be