Almost all the reasons for your unhappiness in life can be found in Russell's books.

Although Russell was a man of words, he loved mathematics, so his ideas and opinions had a romantic quality based on rationality and following the laws of everything. No wonder Wang Xiaobo mentions him several times in his book.

I recently read Russell's The Road to Happiness, about why people are unhappy and how to achieve happiness, which was written nearly a hundred years ago, and is very applicable to modern times. In particular, ideas about wealth, success, competition, love and education are still very advanced more than a hundred years later. Sure enough, classical wisdom and thought can always transcend time and space.

Share some ideas from his book that I think might be useful. Want to be of value to you.

Too easy to get, not happy:

"The feeling of emptiness is caused by natural needs too easily satisfied. Man, like all other animals, has a certain amount of struggle for existence, and when man, with great wealth, can satisfy all his desires without difficulty, the element of happiness will be lost."

Wealth is not directly related to happiness:

"It is necessary to avoid the perpetuation of poverty if the benefits of machine production are to be of any benefit to those who need it most; But what's the use of making everyone rich if the rich themselves are upset?"

The "sense of competition" makes one lose reason and intelligence:

"The accepted philosophy of life holds that life is a struggle, a competition, and that respect belongs only to the victor. It leads people to overdevelop the will at the expense of reason and intelligence."

Reason does not stand in the way of happiness

"I want to convince the reader that, whatever the arguments, reason never stands in the way of pleasure; Those who sincerely attribute their grief to their own view of the universe are guilty of putting the cart before the horse: they grieve for reasons they do not yet understand, but that grief induces them to emphasize unpleasant features of the world."

Refute the theory that life is meaningless

"The fact that everything will disappear is not in itself a ground for pessimism. If they were replaced by something inferior, that would be grounds for pessimism, but if they were replaced by something superior, wouldn't it be grounds for optimism? The habit of looking to the future and thinking that the whole point of today is what it will bring tomorrow is harmful."

Talk about love and sex

"Love can renew our whole life as rain does to plants after a long drought. Sex without love has no such effect. When the brief moment of pleasure is over, all that remains is tiredness, disgust, and a sense of emptiness in life. Love is a part of life on earth; Sex without love is not."

Said education

"The ability to endure monotony should be cultivated from an early age. Modern parents deserve a lot of blame for this; They provide their children with too much negative entertainment... Children's entertainment should be obtained primarily through their own efforts and creativity from their surroundings. Entertainment that is stimulating and does not involve physical movement should be minimal."

Success in competition is not the source of happiness

"What people call the struggle of life is actually the struggle for success. What men fear in this struggle is not that they will not have breakfast the next day, but that they will not be able to outdo their neighbors. It is, in the final analysis, the cause of this trouble, which is to attach so much importance to the success of competition as to regard it as the chief source of happiness."

Don't pay too high a price for "success"

"I admit that a sense of success makes it easy to take pleasure in life. I am convinced that success is only one component of happiness, and that it is too high a price to pay for that component at the expense of the others."

Say jealousy

"Of all the features of common human nature, envy is the most unfortunate; The jealous person not only wishes to bring disaster to others, but will act at any time if he can get away with it, and he himself will become depressed because of envy. You can't overcome jealousy by success alone, because there will always be someone in history or mythology who is more successful than you."

How to overcome jealousy

"You can overcome jealousy only by enjoying your present pleasures, by doing the work you must do, and by avoiding comparisons with what you imagine (perhaps quite wrongly) to be more fortunate than yourself."

The "psychological fatigue" of social animals

"It is extremely difficult to escape the neurological fatigue of modern life. It is the natural instinct of man, like other animals, to investigate every stranger of his race, and to decide whether to treat him favourably or favourably. Those who take the subway during rush hour have to suppress this instinct, and the result of this suppression is an unbridled rage against all the strangers they are reluctant to approach. Then there's the rush to catch the morning train, and the indigestion that comes with it. So by the time these employees arrive at the office and the work day has just begun, they are already mentally tired and easily perceive humans as a nuisance. Employers who come in the same frame of mind will never try to eliminate this tendency in their employees. Fearing dismissal, the employees had to put on a show of deference, but this unnatural behavior only aggravated their nerves."

Talk about your boss's "mental fatigue"

"It is true that there are those who have attained such a level of power that they are not afraid of anything, but they have attained such a position only after years of intense struggle, during which they have to know everything about the world and constantly thwart the plots of their competitors. The result of all this is that when real success comes, a man's nerves are already broken, and the habit of worrying keeps him from worrying when he needn't worry."

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The "mental fatigue" of the rich Second generation

"It is true that the sons of the rich should be the exception, but they always like to make trouble for themselves, and these troubles cause just as much pain as they would have had they not been born rich. They were disliked by their father for betting and gambling; Staying up late for fun makes them weak; By the time they settled down, they were no more able to enjoy themselves than their father had been. Some willingly, some have to, in short, most of the modern people live a very nervous life, because of the continuous overwork, if no alcohol help, has no idea what happiness is."

I hope to give you ideas.