koshelev 's review for:

The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell

4.5

medium-paced

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This book is by far the most concise and practical self-help book I’ve ever read. Practical not necessarily in a sense of practical advises but rather of summarizing life principles that a happy man can live by.

It resonated with me a lot and I was quite shocked how well it stood up a time test being almost a century old.

For non-quite-happy readers, I don’t think it can offer a path to happiness; but it definitely can slightly open up a door to reflect and see how your worldview affects your emotions. During my whole life, I myself was describing my happiness recipe as being hedonistic and enjoying life as much as one can. However, in this pure definition it never quite clicked completely as if some deeper meaning was missing or there was a hacky way to fit into definition but not getting the gist of it entirely. 

So, Russel strikes a good balance for me in describing how he thinks life should be viewed and lived. Understanding that it’s all fleeting and transient and that it’s not worth wasting yourself on the provoking moments of unfortunate events, especially if those are inevitable. But also, not discarding those that  that require a certain amount of sorrow or sadness — just enough though to not get into self-pitying yourself into a vicious cycle. 

I hope to reread this book or specific chapters — it’ll act as a good reminder to not fall into your own mind’s trap that might have emerged either from a social context that you’ve been surrounded with or reinforced patterns that create those cycles that are hard to break in from. Being genuinely curious about people and life around and keeping yourself from being self-centered is one of the keys that Russel writes about and I’d agree with him on that.