 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
It will be said that, while a little leisure is pleasant, men would not know how to fill their days if they had only four hours of work out of the twenty-four. In so far as this is true in the modern world, it is a condemnation of our civilization; it would not have been true at any earlier period. There was formerly a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency. The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.
Source: n Praise of Idleness, 1932
Reprinted in: In Praise of Idleness, and Other Essays, 1935,
More info.: https://russell-j.com/cool/IPI_1935.pdf