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

so long as he retains it he will find life pleasant
unless his liberty is unduly curtailed. Loss of zest
in civilised society is very largely due to the
restrictions upon liberty which are essential to our
way of life. The savage hunts when he is hungry,
and in so doing is obeying a direct impulse. The
man who goes to his work every morning at a
certain hour is actuated fundamentally by the same
impulse, namely the need to secure a living, but in
his case the impulse does not operate directly and
at the moment when it is felt: it operates indirectly
through abstractions, beliefs and volitions. At the
moment when the man starts off to his work he is
not feeling hungry, since he has just had his
breakfast. He merely knows that hunger will recur,
and that going to his work is a means of satisfying
future hunger. Impulses are irregular, whereas
habits, in a civilised society, have to be regular.
Among savages, even collective enterprises, in so
far as they exist, are spontaneous and impulsive.
When the tribe is going to war the tom-tom’ rouses
military ardour, and herd excitement inspires each
individual to the necessary activity. Modern