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

and with the respect of the society in which we
live. Some passions can be indulged to almost any
extent without passing beyond these limits, others
cannot. The man, let us say, who loves chess, if he
happens to be a bachelor with independent means,
need not restrict his passion in any degree,
whereas if he has a wife and children and no
independent means, he will have to restrict it very
severely. The dipsomaniac and the gormandiser,
even if they have no social ties, are unwise from a
self-regarding point of view, since their indulgence
interferes with health, and gives them hours of
misery in return for minutes of pleasure. Certain
things form a framework within which any separate
passion must live if it is not to become a source of
misery. Such things are health, the general
possession of one’s faculties, a sufficient income
to provide for necessaries, and the most essential
social duties, such as those towards wife and
children. The man who sacrifices these things for
chess is essentially as bad as the dipsomaniac. The
only reason we do not condemn him so severely is
that he is much less common, and that only a man