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

impersonal interests, there is another consideration
which makes them a great help towards happiness.
Even in the most fortunate lives there are times
when things go wrong. Few men except bachelors
have never quarrelled with their wives; few
parents have not endured grave anxiety owing to
the illnesses of their children; few businessmen
have avoided times of financial stress; few
professional men have not known periods when
failure stared them in the face. At such times a
capacity to become interested in something outside
the cause of anxiety is an immense boon. At such
times, when in spite of anxiety there is nothing to
be done at the moment, one man will play chess,
another will read detective stories, a third will
become absorbed in popular astronomy, a fourth
will console himself by reading about the
excavations at Ur of the Chaldees. Any one of
these four is acting wisely, whereas the man who
does nothing to distract his mind and allows his
trouble to acquire a complete empire over him is
acting unwisely and making himself less fit to cope
with his troubles when the moment for action