“A friendly interest in persons is a form of affectionateness, … [of] the kind that likes to observe people and finds pleasure in their individual traits, that wishes to afford scope for the interests and pleasures of those with whom it is brought into contact without desiring to acquire power over them or to secure their enthusiastic admiration.

The person whose attitude towards others is genuinely of this kind will be a source of happiness and a recipient of reciprocal kindness. … Being happy in himself, he will be a pleasant companion, and this in turn will increase his happiness. .. To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness. …

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile. …

All disenchantment is to me a malady, which, it is true, certain circumstances may render inevitable, but which non the less, when it occurs, is to be cured as soon as possible, not to be regarded as a higher form of wisdom. …

The more things man is interested in, in more opportunities of happiness he has and the less he is at the mercy of fate, since if he loses one thing he can fall back upon another. Life is too short to be interested in everything, but it is good to be interested in as many things as are necessary to fill our days. …

The man … whose attention is turned within finds nothing worthy of his notice, whereas the men whose attention is turned outward can find within, in those rare moments when he examines his soul, the most varied and interesting assortment of ingredients being dissected and recombined into beautiful or instructive patterns.”

aus: Bertrand Russell: The Conquest of Happiness. New York: Signet 1951 [Originalausg. 1930], S.91-95.

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