WIST Quotations<p><a href="https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/75565/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A quotation from <b>Bertrand Russell</b></a></p><blockquote>I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more. This is due partly to having discovered what were the things that I most desired, and having gradually acquired many of these things. Partly it is due to having successfully dismissed certain objects of desire — such as the acquisition of indubitable knowledge about something or other — as essentially unattainable. But very largely it is due to a diminishing preoccupation with myself. Like others who had a Puritan education, I had the habit of meditating on my sins, follies, and shortcomings. I seemed to myself — no doubt justly — a miserable specimen. Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to centre my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.</blockquote><p><b>Bertrand Russell</b> (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher<br><i>Conquest of Happiness</i>, Part 1, ch. 1 “What Makes People Unhappy?” (1930)</p> <p>Sourcing, notes: <a href="https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/75565/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wist.info/russell-bertrand/755…</a></p><p><a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=quote" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>quote</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=quotes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>quotes</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=quotation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>quotation</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=BertrandRussell" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BertrandRussell</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=puritanism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>puritanism</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=acquisitions" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>acquisitions</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=attention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>attention</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=desire" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>desire</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=enjoyment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>enjoyment</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=externalities" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>externalities</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=focus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>focus</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=happiness" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>happiness</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=life" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>life</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=living" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>living</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=selfabsorption" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>selfabsorption</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=selfcriticism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>selfcriticism</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=selfdeprecation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>selfdeprecation</span></a> <a href="https://my-place.social/search?tag=selfloathing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>selfloathing</span></a></p>