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All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

Approximate author period: c. 1921 AD · modern

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Bertrand Russell
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
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Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1921 AD · modern
author lifetime midpoint (1872–1970)
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Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 218083; supplied attribution, independently unverified

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