What Bertrand Russell thinks about happiness
British philosopher and logician (1872 to 1970), also a social critic; co-author with Alfred North Whitehead of Principia Mathematica (1910 to 1913), author of The Problems of Philosophy (1912), awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Bertrand Russell did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
12 dated positions, c. 1925 to c. 1930, in their own words. Our reading of what Bertrand Russell has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsIt is in the belief that many people who are unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort that I have written this book.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsPower kept within its proper bounds may add greatly to happiness, but as the sole end of life it leads to disaster, inwardly if not outwardly.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsA happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsThe essentials of human happiness are simple, so simple that sophisticated people cannot bring themselves to admit what it is they really lack.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsThe happiness that requires intoxication of no matter what sort is a spurious and unsatisfying kind. The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties, and the fullest realization of the world in which we live.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsThe secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsBetween male and female excellence rightly conceived there is no difference, or at any rate no difference such as tradition inculcates. For women as for men zest is the secret of happiness and well-being.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsOf all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our readingTo bear misfortune well, it is wise to have cultivated a width of interests in happier times
Their wordsTo bear misfortune well 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.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsHappiness is not, except in very rare cases, something that drops into the mouth, like a ripe fruit, by the mere operation of fortunate circumstances.
↗The Conquest of Happiness (1930)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsHappiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
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Their wordsThe good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.