Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly.
Interpretation
True happiness comes as a byproduct of pursuing other goals, rather than chasing happiness itself.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell suggests that happiness should not be the primary goal of an individual's life. Instead, happiness often arises as a result of engaging in meaningful pursuits, fulfilling relationships, or personal growth. When people focus solely on attaining happiness, it can elude them; however, when they invest their energy into passions and positive activities, happiness tends to follow naturally.
In practice
During a motivational speech about personal growth, someone might use this quote to emphasize the importance of pursuing passions.
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.
Happiness is the ultimate goal...The mistake we make is not going for happiness first. If we did, everything else would follow.
I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money.
My formula for happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal.
Mankind . . . possesses two supreme blessings. First of these is the goddess Demeter, or Earth whichever name you choose to call her by. It was she who gave to man his nourishment of grain. But after her there came the son of Semele, who matched her present by inventing liquid wine as his gift to man. For filled with that good gift, suffering mankind forgets its grief; from it comes sleep; with it oblivion of the troubles of the day. There is no other medicine for misery.
Things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us.
It is said that all people who are happy have God within them.
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