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

we were considering a moment ago, it is clear that
the urge to have children must be very powerful,
for otherwise none of them would make the
sacrifices required in order to satisfy it. For my
own part, speaking personally, I have found the
happiness of parenthood greater than any other that
I have experienced. I believe that when
circumstances lead men or women to forgo this
happiness, a very deep need remains ungratified,
and that this produces a dissatisfaction and
listlessness of which the cause may remain quite
unknown. To be happy in this world, especially
when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself
not merely an isolated individual whose day will
soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing
on from the first germ to the remote and unknown
future. As a conscious sentiment, expressed in set
terms, this involves no doubt a hyper-civilised and
intellectual outlook upon the world, but as a vague
instinctive emotion it is primitive and natural, and
it is its absence that is hyper-civilised. A man who
is capable of some great and remarkable
achievement which sets its stamp upon future ages