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

And the man who is ashamed of his work can
hardly achieve self-respect.
The satisfaction of constructive work, though it
may, as things are, be the privilege of a minority,
can nevertheless be the privilege of a quite large
minority. Any man who is his own master in his
work can feel it; so can any man whose work
appears to him useful and requires considerable
skill. The production of satisfactory children is a
difficult constructive work capable of affording
profound satisfaction. Any woman who has
achieved this can feel that as a result of her labour
the world contains something of value which it
would not otherwise contain.
Human beings differ profoundly in regard to the
tendency to regard their lives as a whole: To some
men it is natural to do so, and essential to
happiness to be able to do so with some
satisfaction. To others life is a series of detached
incidents without directed movement and without
unity. I think the former sort are more likely to