To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
Interpretation
Intelligent use of leisure time is a marker of advanced civilization, yet few have mastered it.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell emphasizes the importance of using leisure time wisely as a true hallmark of a developed society. He suggests that while many people may have the opportunity for leisure, the ability to engage with it thoughtfully and meaningfully is rare, highlighting a gap in societal progress.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of work-life balance, this quote could highlight the necessity of using free time wisely.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
Living is being born slowly. It would be a little too easy if we could borrow ready-made souls.
Big Brother is not the only danger facing the country. Another is the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good.
Am I a pessimist? Not at all. I am convinced that the history of the human race, no matter how tragic, will ultimately lead to the Kingdom of God. I am convinced that all the works of humankind will be reintegrated in the work of God, and that each of us, no matter how sinful, will ultimately be saved.
Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
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