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

when it comes, it is wise to have cultivated in
happier times a certain width of interests, so that
the mind may find prepared for it some undisturbed
place suggesting other associations and other
emotions than those which are making the present
difficult to bear.
A man of adequate vitality and zest will surmount
all misfortunes by the emergence after each blow
of an interest in life and the world which cannot be
narrowed down so much as to make one loss fatal.
To be defeated by one loss or even by several is
not something to be admired as a proof of
sensibility, but something to be deplored as a
failure in vitality. All our affections are at the
mercy of death, which may strike down those
whom we love at any moment. It is therefore
necessary that our lives should not have that
narrow intensity which puts the whole meaning and
purpose of our life at the mercy of accident. For all
these reasons the man who pursues happiness
wisely will aim at the possession of a number of
subsidiary interests in addition to those central