Saturday, February 25, 2023

Conquest of happiness

Bertrand Russell 

The world is vast
 and our own powers are limited.
 If all our happiness is bound up 
entirely in our personal circumstances 
it is difficult not to demand of life 
more than it has to give. 

And to demand too much 
is the surest way of getting even less
 than is possible. 

The man* who can forget his worries 
by means of a genuine interest in, say,
 the Council of Trent, or the life history of stars, 
will find that, 
when he returns from his excursion
 into the impersonal world, 
he has acquired a poise and calm
 which enable him to deal with his worries 
in the best way, 
and he will in the meantime have experienced
 a genuine even if temporary happiness

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