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Any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued.
Bertrand Russell
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Pleasure should be appreciated as long as it does not negatively impact others.

This quote by Bertrand Russell emphasizes the importance of evaluating our pleasures based on their effects on others. It suggests that enjoying experiences that do not cause harm to other people is inherently valuable, promoting a mindset of ethical consideration in pursuit of personal happiness.

Themes

PleasureEthicsHappinessValueNon-Harm

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion on ethical living, one might invoke this quote to advocate for personal joys that respect others.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
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