Bertrand Russell describes the purpose of this book as the putting together of some remarks on the state of happiness which are inspired by common sense, rather than any profound philosophy or deep erudition. It is based on the belief that many people who are unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of th...
Bertrand Russell describes the purpose of this book as the putting together of some remarks on the state of happiness which are inspired by common sense, rather than any profound philosophy or deep erudition. It is based on the belief that many people who are unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The knowledge of good literature, which was universal among educated people fifty or a hundred years ago, is now confined to a few professors. All the quieter pleasures have been abandoned. Some American students took me walking in the spring through a wood in the borders of their campus; it was filled with exquisite wild flowers, but not one of my guides knew the name of even one of them. What...
2015-05-17 14:58:171人喜欢
The knowledge of good literature, which was universal among educated people fifty or a hundred years ago, is now confined to a few professors. All the quieter pleasures have been abandoned. Some American students took me walking in the spring through a wood in the borders of their campus; it was filled with exquisite wild flowers, but not one of my guides knew the name of even one of them. What use would such knowledge be? It could not add to anybody's income.
Education used to be conceived very largely as a training in the capacity for enjoyment - enjoyment, I mean, of those more delicate kinds that are not open to wholly uncultivated people.
2015-05-17 14:27:04
Education used to be conceived very largely as a training in the capacity for enjoyment - enjoyment, I mean, of those more delicate kinds that are not open to wholly uncultivated people.
“In old days people only envied their neighbours, because they knew little about anyone else. Now through education and the Press they know much in an abstract way about large classes of mankind of whom no single individual is among their acquaintance. Through the movies they think they know how the rich live, through the newspapers they know much of the wickedness of foreign nations, through ...
2015-05-13 03:29:481人喜欢
“In old days people only envied their neighbours, because they knew little about anyone else. Now through education and the Press they know much in an abstract way about large classes of mankind of whom no single individual is among their acquaintance. Through the movies they think they know how the rich live, through the newspapers they know much of the wickedness of foreign nations, through propaganda they know of the nefarious practices of all whose skin has a pigmentation different from their own. Yellows hate whites, whites hate blacks, and so on. All this hatred, you may say, is stirred up by propaganda, but this is a somewhat shallow explanation. Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling? The reason is clearly that the human heart as modern civilisation has made it is more prone to hatred than to friendship. And it is prone to hatred because it is dissatisfied, because it feels deeply, perhaps even unconsciously, that it has somehow missed the meaning of life, that perhaps others, but not we ourselves, have secured the good things which nature offers man’s enjoyment. The positive[…]”
Excerpt From: Unknown. “[Russell_Bertrand]_The_Conquest_of_Happiness(BookSee.org).epub.” iBooks.
QUOTE: "Interest in oneself, on the contrary, leads to no activity of a progressive kind. It may lead to the keeping of a diary, to getting psycho-analysed, or perhaps to becoming a monk. But the monk will not be happy until the routine of the monastery has made him forget his own soul. The happiness which he attributes to religion he could have obtained from becoming a crossing-sweeper, provid...
2011-03-12 17:20:211人喜欢
QUOTE:
"Interest in oneself, on the contrary, leads to no activity of a progressive kind. It may lead to the keeping of a diary, to getting psycho-analysed, or perhaps to becoming a monk. But the monk will not be happy until the routine of the monastery has made him forget his own soul. The happiness which he attributes to religion he could have obtained from becoming a crossing-sweeper, provided he were compelled to remain one. External discipline is the only road to happiness for those unfortunates whose self-absorption is too profound to be cured in any other way"
I suppose it's the only way to forget yourself at times,avoiding the pain from asking and seeking for no-answer-given questions to the self
QUOTE:"The typical unhappy man is one who, having been deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one kind of satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to the activities connected with it. " To me, it's the lack of respect from my parents that has le...
2011-03-12 17:24:31
QUOTE:"The typical unhappy man is one who, having been
deprived in youth of some normal satisfaction, has come to value this one kind of
satisfaction more than any other, and has therefore given to his life a one-sided
direction, together with a quite undue emphasis upon the achievement as opposed to
the activities connected with it. "
To me, it's the lack of respect from my parents that has led me to the expedition for respect and philosophy, I suppose
QUOTE: " The feeling is one born of a too easy satisfaction of natural needs. The human animal, like others, is adapted to a certain amount of struggle for life, and when by means of great wealth homo sapiens can gratify all his whims without effort, the mere absence of effort from his life removes an essential ingredient of happhess. The man who acquires easily things for which he feels only a...
2011-03-12 17:26:39
QUOTE:
" The feeling is one born of a too easy satisfaction of natural needs. The human animal,
like others, is adapted to a certain amount of struggle for life, and when by means of
great wealth homo sapiens can gratify all his whims without effort, the mere absence
of effort from his life removes an essential ingredient of happhess. The man who
acquires easily things for which he feels only a very moderate desire concludes that
the attainment of desire does not bring happiness. If he is of a philosophic disposition,
he concludes that human life is essentially wretched, since the man who has all he
wants is still unhappy. He forgets that to be without some of the things you want is an
indispensable part of happiness."
As for the author,man has to have desires,not just moderate ones obtained effortlessly,but strong ones requiring much effort.Without desires, the state of feeling vainity that came from effortlessness would bring about a negative attitude towards life and thus man suffers from unhappiness 。所以从这点上来讲，中国古谚“无欲则刚”所带来的“刚韧”、“坚强”，要求的代价实则是“无欲”之后的“无幸福感”。但若果真如此，在“无幸福感”的同时，人又为何而存在，此时的“刚”又如何体现其价值？（people get drunk to feel less alive and succumb to oblivion) 也许“无欲则刚”所存在的问题，如作者所说，和“拜伦式不幸”，有着共同的特点——本末倒置。
quote: "It is bound up with fear and with the desire to find a refuge from the cold blasts of impartial criticism. Many old bachelors learn to derive the same satisfaction from their own fireside." So whether or not a praise is deserved , people kindly give it out. in return of the same in harmony. In the author's opinion, this "mutual admiration" derived from the fear of impartial criticism wh...
2011-03-12 17:29:26
quote:
"It is
bound up with fear and with the desire to find a refuge from the cold blasts of
impartial criticism. Many old bachelors learn to derive the same satisfaction from
their own fireside."
So whether or not a praise is deserved , people kindly give it out. in return of the same in harmony. In the author's opinion, this "mutual admiration" derived from the fear of impartial criticism which would probably discourage people. However, this kind of admiration, namely love, only limits itself in psudo-harmony and hypocrisy
All impersonal interests, apart from their importance as relaxation, have various other uses. To begin with, they help a man to retain his sense of proportion. It is very easy to become so absorbed in our own pursuits, our own circle our own type of work, that we forget how small a part this is of the total of human activity and how many things in the world are entirely unaffected by what we do.
2021-09-01 12:51:46
All impersonal interests, apart from their importance as relaxation, have various other uses. To begin with, they help a man to retain his sense of proportion. It is very easy to become so absorbed in our own pursuits, our own circle our own type of work, that we forget how small a part this is of the total of human activity and how many things in the world are entirely unaffected by what we do. 引自第2161页
Whenever society demands of a mother sacrifices to her child which go beyond reason, the mother, if she is not unusually saintly, will expect from her child compensations exceeding those she has a right to expect. The mother who is conventionally called self-sacrificing is, in a great majority of cases, exceptionally selfish towards her children, for important as parenthood is as an element of ...
2021-09-01 07:45:06
Whenever society demands of a
mother sacrifices to her child which go beyond reason, the mother, if she is not unusually
saintly, will expect from her child
compensations exceeding those she has a right to expect. The mother who is conventionally called self-sacrificing is, in a great majority of cases, exceptionally selfish towards her
children, for important as parenthood is as an element of life, it is not satisfying if it is treated as the whole of life, and the unsatisfied parent is likely to be an emotionally grasping parent.
It is common in our day, as it has been in many other periods of the world’s history, to suppose that those among us who are wise have seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and have become aware that there is nothing left to live for. The men who hold this view are genuinely unhappy, but they are proud of their unhappiness, which they attribute to the nature of the universe and con...
2021-07-02 07:44:13
It is common in our day, as it has been in many other periods of the world’s history, to suppose that those among us who are wise have seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and have become aware that there is nothing left to live for. The men who hold this view are genuinely unhappy, but they are proud of their unhappiness, which they attribute to the nature of the universe and consider to be the only rational attitude for an enlightened man.
I do not myself think that there is any superior rationality in being unhappy. The wise man will be as happy as circumstances permit and if he finds the contemplation of the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else instead. This is what I wish to prove in the present chapter. I wish to persuade the reader that, whatever the arguments may be, reason lays no embargo upon happiness; nay, more, I am persuaded that those who quite sincerely attribute their sorrows to their views about the universe are putting the cart before the horse: the truth is that they are unhappy for some reason of which they are not aware, and this unhappiness leads them to dwell upon the less agreeable characteristics of the world in which they live.
If your child is ill, you may be unhappy, but you will not feel that all is vanity; you will feel that the restoring of the child to health is a matter to be attended to regardless of the question whether there is ultimate value in human life or not. A rich man may, and often does, feel that all is vanity, but if he should happen to lose his money, he would feel that his next meal was by no means vanity.
The feeling is one born of a too easy satisfaction of natural needs. The human animal, like others, is adapted to a certain amount of struggle for life, and when by means of great wealth homo sapiens can gratify all his whims without effort, the mere absence of effort from his life removes an essential ingredient of happiness. The man who acquires easily things for which he feels only a very moderate desire concludes that the attainment of desire does not bring happiness. ... He forgets that to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
如果一个东西或一个目标太容易到手了，就会感到空虚。在千百万年的进化里，人和所有其他动物一样，需要在外界通过相当的生存斗争，才能满足自己的所需。这也是为什么罗素的《幸福之路》这本书的英文原名是叫做《The Conquest of Happiness》，特意用了"Conquest"这个单词。因为幸福的过程正如登山之人征服高峰一样，是需要付出一定的汗水和努力的，是需要遇到一点阻碍与坎坷的。
典型的悲观主义言论见诸于《圣经》中的《传道书》：
The rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.
There is no new thing under the sun.
There is no remembrance of former things.
I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because
I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
That the world contains many pessimists at the present moment is true. There have always been many pessimists whenever there have been many people whose income has diminished. ... Such social causes have a great deal more to do with the mood of an epoch than has its’ theory as to the nature of the world. ... I do not for a moment believe that this pessimism had any metaphysical cause. Its causes were war, poverty, and violence.
小单
陕西师范大学出版社2003版
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陕西师范大学出版社2003版
青画林
天津人民出版社2021版
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陕西师范大学出版社2003版
The knowledge of good literature, which was universal among educated people fifty or a hundred years ago, is now confined to a few professors. All the quieter pleasures have been abandoned. Some American students took me walking in the spring through a wood in the borders of their campus; it was filled with exquisite wild flowers, but not one of my guides knew the name of even one of them. What...
0 有用 一米阳光 2012-12-09 22:35:34
Highly recommended!
0 有用 Spark 2012-11-11 23:15:50
罗素的笔法一向很好
0 有用 黄昏之鸟 2016-04-19 15:06:15
罗素文笔漂亮，虽然啰嗦和不利索了点，但不影响他的洞见
0 有用 ztmp 2011-07-09 23:05:09
如沐春风
1 有用 里熙 2010-07-31 13:29:28
why can't we just content with our present live and want to pursue more？
0 有用 眯眯眼(｡◝‿◜｡) 2022-04-13 17:02:49
终于看完了！将近一个月！
0 有用 哈利cuìcuì同学 2022-03-06 19:49:52
文笔真好，就是没什么实际作用（对我来说），像优美的布道
0 有用 豆友197209530 2022-02-21 15:05:30
Insightful
0 有用 rorschach 2022-01-28 11:24:01
说是鸡汤也没有错，但罗素炖的鸡汤营养还是有保障的，值得一读
0 有用 狡兔三窟 2021-12-05 22:52:07
@2012-02-21 20:42:02