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

Ambition which excludes affection from its
purview is generally the result of some kind of
anger or hatred against the human race, produced
by unhappiness in youth, by injustices in later life,
or by any of the causes which lead to persecution
mania. A too powerful ego is a prison from which
a man must escape if he is to enjoy the world to the
full. A capacity for genuine affection is one of the
marks of the man who has escaped from this prison
of self. To receive affection is by no means
enough; affection which is received should liberate
the affection which is to be given, and only where
both exist in equal measure does affection achieve
its best possibilities.
Obstacles, psychological and social, to the
blossoming of reciprocal affection are a grave
evil, from which the world has always suffered
and still suffers . People are slow to give
admiration for fear it should be misplaced; they are
slow to bestow affection for fear that they should
be made to suffer either by the person upon whom
they bestow it or by a censorious world. Caution is