Q0098

“To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn with passion for eternal…” — Bertrand Russell (A Free Man's Worship)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: A Free Man's Worship. Theme: philosophy.

English

To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn with passion for eternal things — this is emancipation.
Thinker Bertrand Russell
School Analytic Philosophy
Source A Free Man's Worship
Theme Browse all themes
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to A Free Man's Worship and files it under Analytic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher, logician, and public intellectual who helped found analytic philosophy. With A.

How to read this passage

This passage is indexed under . Those labels identify the concepts it can illuminate; they do not replace the argument surrounding it in A Free Man's Worship.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Bertrand Russell. (n.d.). To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn with passion for eternal things — this is emancipation. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0098

MLA: Bertrand Russell. “To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0098.

Chicago: Bertrand Russell. “To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0098.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn…”?

The passage is attributed to Bertrand Russell, A Free Man's Worship. The archive attributes this English wording to A Free Man's Worship and files it under Analytic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Bertrand Russell mean by philosophy?

This passage is indexed under . Those labels identify the concepts it can illuminate; they do not replace the argument surrounding it in A Free Man's Worship.

Same thinker

More from Bertrand Russell

  1. The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions…be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
  2. Next to worry, probably one of the most potent causes of unhappiness is envy.
  3. Envy is itself a terrible obstacle to happiness.
  4. Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
  5. Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.

All quotations by Bertrand Russell

Same theme

More on philosophy

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse all philosophy themes