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

life. A wish to escape from boredom is natural;
indeed, all races of mankind have displayed it as
opportunity occurred. When savages have first
tasted liquor at the hands of the white men, they
have found at last an escape from age-old tedium,
and, except when the Government has interfered,
they have drunk themselves into a riotous death.
Wars, pogroms, and persecutions have all been
part of the flight from boredom; even quarrels with
neighbours have been found better than nothing.
Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the
moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are
caused by the fear of it.
Boredom, however, is not to be regarded as
wholly evil. There are two sorts, of which one is
fructifying, while the other is stultifying. The
fructifying kind arises from the absence of drugs,
and the stultifying kind from the absence of vital
activities. I am not prepared to say that drugs can
play no good part in life whatsoever. There are
moments, for example, when an opiate will be
prescribed by a wise physician, and I think these