Bertrand Russell

The 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 man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.

The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

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.

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.