The Conquest of Happiness

by Bertrand Russell

About This Book

Written for the ordinary reader rather than the academy, Russell's book splits into causes of unhappiness (competition, boredom, envy, the fear of public opinion, a fixation on sin) and causes of happiness (zest, affection, family, work, impersonal interests). His central move is outward: unhappiness tends to come from excessive self-absorption, and the cure is a widening of genuine interest in the world beyond oneself. Nearly a century later it reads as unusually direct, unsentimental self-help from a first-rank philosopher.

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