Bertrand Russell

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.

I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.

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

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 secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

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

Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.