 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Where it (vitality) exists, there is pleasure in feeling alive, quite apart from any specific pleasant circumstances. It heightens pleasures and diminishes pains. It makes it easy to take an interest in whatever occurs, and thus promotes objectivity, which is an essential of sanity.
Source: Bertrand Russell: On Education, especially in early childhood, 1926, chap. 2: The Aims of Education
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* a brief comment: original text in Japanese, translated with Google translator
Is it appropriate to say that "Vitality" is a term that means a (high) level of "vigor, or life force"? Vitality can be present even when one's health is a bit poor, but it is usually a state of being healthy and motivated.
There are many people who are healthy as they age, but they inevitably have less vitality than when they were younger. We are envious of young children who are energetic even when there is nothing special going on with them. As adults, we can find joy in the most trivial of things.
However, even as we age, those whose intellectual curiosity has not waned can retain their vitality for a long time. Those who repeat the words "I don't remember" or "I don't remember" in the Diet and think they can still work as politicians despite their lack of vitality (physically healthy but mentally ill) are the "Mere Old Man". Translated with DeepL.com (free version)