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

all parts of the world and constantly foiling the
machinations of their competitors. The result of all
this is that when sound success comes a man is
already a nervous wreck, so accustomed to anxiety
that he cannot shake off the habit of it when the
need for it is past. There are, it is true, rich men’s
sons, but they generally succeed in manufacturing
for themselves anxieties as similar as possible to
those that they would have suffered if they had not
been born rich. By betting and gambling, they incur
the displeasure of their fathers; by cutting short
their sleep for the sake of their amusements, they
debilitate their physique; and by the time they settle
down, they have become as incapable of happiness
as their fathers were before them. Voluntarily or
involuntarily, of choice or of necessity, most
moderns lead a nerve-racking life, and are
continually too tired to be capable of enjoyment
without the help of alcohol.
Leaving on one side those rich men who are
merely fools, let us consider the commoner case of
those whose fatigue is associated with strenuous