__ Lord Russell, what things have given you the greatest personal pleasure?
That's rather a difficult question, isn't it?
Passionate private relations perhaps would come first of all.
I get immense pleasure from natural beauty. And intellectual pleasure, understanding something that had been puzzling, and the moment comes when you understand it, that is a very delightful moment.
Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) "Closeup" TV interview (1959年) Repr. in: The Quotable Bertrand Russell, ed. by Lee Eisler (New York; Prometheus Books, 1993）.
A Brief Reflection: If You Were Asked, "What Has Given You the Greatest Happiness in Life?"
What kinds of things people take an interest in, and what moves them emotionally, vary from person to person. Such differences are partly unique to each individual, but they are also shaped by the history, culture, customs, and social practices of the society to which one belongs, as well as by family upbringing and formal education.In a television interview in 1959, Bertrand Russell was asked, "What things have given you the greatest personal pleasure throughout your life up to the present?" In response, he listed, more or less spontaneously, the things from which he had derived pleasure over the course of his life. That said, answers to this kind of question are bound to change depending on one's age at the time of being asked, as well as on one's circumstances at that particular moment. For that reason, it would not be appropriate to quote his remarks as representing "what gave Russell the greatest pleasure in his life" in any definitive sense. It seems safer to take them simply as statements made at a particular point in time.
Be that as it may, how would you answer such a question if it were put to you? There are surely matters you would prefer not to answer honestly, and even if you tried to respond in all seriousness, you would probably find yourself unconsciously softening your words, or excluding altogether things that might be better left unsaid.
If today's President Trump were asked such a question, he might blurt out something overly frank. But since he is a person who has no qualms about saying today what contradicts what he said yesterday, it would be dangerous to take his words at face value. By contrast, Prime Minister Takaichi, for example, often appears to pretend not to have heard the question at all when asked about Trump's remarks, and tends not to give a straightforward answer. This, too, is problematic in its own way.
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