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In Praise of Idleness 2ND EDITION
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About the author
Bertrand Russell
1,228 books7,305 followersBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS, was a Welsh philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, advocate for social reform, pacifist, and prominent rationalist. Although he was usually regarded as English, as he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 10, 2024
Some of the essays in this collection are footnoted with the date of their composition, and others are not. It would be worthwhile to have each glossed with the date, because the fact that this was published in 1935 gives a completely different colour to Russell’s observations on Fascism and Communism. While they are all correct, and borne out by historical events, there is a lack of urgency or concern in his opinions that can only be the case in the inter-war years.
The title of the collection is a little misleading. The essays are not about how to get Tim Ferris’ four-hour work week for everyone, but rather a series of meditations on the great political movements of the time, and an attempt to ‘persuade’ the reader into the merits of socialism. He is particularly far-sighted on the topic of ‘unpaid wives’ and the way that modern architecture – by which you can also take modern urban planning, engineering, and public transport – is set up to isolate women in particular. What he doesn’t quite conclude but I will for him, with the benefit of fifty years of testing the hypothesis, is that primary caregiver childrearing is incompatible with almost all higher professional career aspirations. That this affects women and almost only women is a wrong that has yet to be righted by modern feminism, but communal childcare and canteens are not a bad start.
In Praise of Idleness:
‘In view of the fact that the bulk of public expenditure of most civilised governments consists in payment for past wars or preparation for future wars, the man who lends his money to a government is in the same position as the bad men in Shakespeare who hire murderers.’
‘First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given. Usually two opposite kinds of advice are given simultaneously by two organised bodies of men; this is called politics. The skill required for this kind of work is not knowledge of the subjects as to which advice is given, but knowledge of the art of persuasive speaking and writing, ie of advertising.’
‘In the past, there was a small leisure class and a larger working class. The leisure class enjoyed advantages for which there was no basis in social justice; this necessarily made it oppressive, limited its sympathies, and caused it to invent theories by which to justify its privileges. These facts greatly diminished its excellent, but in spite of this drawback it contributed nearly the whole of what we call civilisation. It cultivated the arts and discovered the sciences; it wrote the books, invented the philosophies, and refined social relations. Even the liberation of the oppressed has usually been inaugurated from above. Without the leisure class, mankind would never have emerged from barbarism.’
Useless Knowledge:
‘This is not because mental cultivation produces positive humanitarian feelings, though it may do so; it is rather because it gives other interests than the ill-treatment of neighbours, and other sources of self-respect than the assertion of domination.’
‘Life, at all times full of pain, is more painful in our time than in the two centuries that preceded it. The attempt to escape from pain drives men to triviality, to self-deception, to the invention of vast collective myths. But these momentary alleviations do but increase the sources of suffering in the long run. Both private and public misfortune can only be mastered by a process in which will and intelligence interact; the part of will is to refuse to shirk the evil or accept an unreal solution, while the part of intelligence is to understand it, to find a cure if it is curable, and, if not, to make it bearable by seeing it in its relations, accepting it as unavoidable, and remembering what lies outside it in other regions, other ages, and the abysses of interstellar space.’
Architecture and Social Questions:
‘Social life outside the family, so far as architecture can secure such a result, is exclusively economic, and all non-economic social needs must be satisfied within the family or remain thwarted. If the social ideals of an age are to be judged by the aesthetic quality of its architecture, the last hundred years represent the lowest point yet reached by humanity.’
OOF.
‘Wage-earning men, even when they are Socialists or Communists, seldom see any need for an alteration in the status of their wives.’
Where is the lie? Even in 2024…
The Modern Midas:
‘Why not carry the fiction a stage further, and deem that the gold has been mined, while leaving it quietly in the ground?\
Ha.
‘The Russians frankly said that they would not pay their debts, but this was thought wicked: respectable repudiation demands a certain etiquette.’
Ha.
‘Finance is more powerful than industry when both are independent, but the interests of industry more nearly coincide with those of the community than do the interests of finance. This is the reason that the world has been brought to such a pass by the excessive power of finance.’
The Ancestry of Fascism:
‘In eighteenth-century England, only the opinions of aristocrats and their friends were important, and these could always be presented in rational form to other aristocrats. As the political constituency grows larger and more heterogenous, the appeal of reason becomes more difficult, since there are fewer universally conceded assumptions from which agreement can start. When such assumptions cannot be found, men are driven to rely upon their own intuitions; and since the intuitions of different groups differ, reliance upon them leads to strife and power politics.’
‘[Carlyle] passes on to the statement that democracy “means despair of finding any Heroes to govern you, and contented with putting up with the want of them.’”
Which maps on to the US right now, I feel.
Western Civilisation:
‘the Romans seem to have invented the virtue of devotion to the impersonal State as opposed to loyalty to the person of the ruler.’
‘The Jews first invented the notion that only one religion could be true, but they had no wish to convert all the world to it, and therefore persecuted only other Jews. The Christians, retaining the Judaic belief in a special revelation, added to it the Roman desire for worldwide domination and the Greek taste for metaphysical subtleties. The combination produced the most fiercely persecuting religion the world has yet known.’
Modern Homogeneity:
‘This illustrates one of the dangers of uniformity as an aim: good qualities are easier to destroy than bad ones, and therefore uniformity is most easily achieved by lowering all standards.’
Education and Discipline:
‘Consideration for others does not, with most children, arise spontaneously, but has to be taught, and hardly can be taught except by the exercise of authority. This is perhaps the most important argument against the abdication of the adults.’
‘No rules, however wise, can substitute for affection and tact.’
The title of the collection is a little misleading. The essays are not about how to get Tim Ferris’ four-hour work week for everyone, but rather a series of meditations on the great political movements of the time, and an attempt to ‘persuade’ the reader into the merits of socialism. He is particularly far-sighted on the topic of ‘unpaid wives’ and the way that modern architecture – by which you can also take modern urban planning, engineering, and public transport – is set up to isolate women in particular. What he doesn’t quite conclude but I will for him, with the benefit of fifty years of testing the hypothesis, is that primary caregiver childrearing is incompatible with almost all higher professional career aspirations. That this affects women and almost only women is a wrong that has yet to be righted by modern feminism, but communal childcare and canteens are not a bad start.
In Praise of Idleness:
‘In view of the fact that the bulk of public expenditure of most civilised governments consists in payment for past wars or preparation for future wars, the man who lends his money to a government is in the same position as the bad men in Shakespeare who hire murderers.’
‘First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given. Usually two opposite kinds of advice are given simultaneously by two organised bodies of men; this is called politics. The skill required for this kind of work is not knowledge of the subjects as to which advice is given, but knowledge of the art of persuasive speaking and writing, ie of advertising.’
‘In the past, there was a small leisure class and a larger working class. The leisure class enjoyed advantages for which there was no basis in social justice; this necessarily made it oppressive, limited its sympathies, and caused it to invent theories by which to justify its privileges. These facts greatly diminished its excellent, but in spite of this drawback it contributed nearly the whole of what we call civilisation. It cultivated the arts and discovered the sciences; it wrote the books, invented the philosophies, and refined social relations. Even the liberation of the oppressed has usually been inaugurated from above. Without the leisure class, mankind would never have emerged from barbarism.’
Useless Knowledge:
‘This is not because mental cultivation produces positive humanitarian feelings, though it may do so; it is rather because it gives other interests than the ill-treatment of neighbours, and other sources of self-respect than the assertion of domination.’
‘Life, at all times full of pain, is more painful in our time than in the two centuries that preceded it. The attempt to escape from pain drives men to triviality, to self-deception, to the invention of vast collective myths. But these momentary alleviations do but increase the sources of suffering in the long run. Both private and public misfortune can only be mastered by a process in which will and intelligence interact; the part of will is to refuse to shirk the evil or accept an unreal solution, while the part of intelligence is to understand it, to find a cure if it is curable, and, if not, to make it bearable by seeing it in its relations, accepting it as unavoidable, and remembering what lies outside it in other regions, other ages, and the abysses of interstellar space.’
Architecture and Social Questions:
‘Social life outside the family, so far as architecture can secure such a result, is exclusively economic, and all non-economic social needs must be satisfied within the family or remain thwarted. If the social ideals of an age are to be judged by the aesthetic quality of its architecture, the last hundred years represent the lowest point yet reached by humanity.’
OOF.
‘Wage-earning men, even when they are Socialists or Communists, seldom see any need for an alteration in the status of their wives.’
Where is the lie? Even in 2024…
The Modern Midas:
‘Why not carry the fiction a stage further, and deem that the gold has been mined, while leaving it quietly in the ground?\
Ha.
‘The Russians frankly said that they would not pay their debts, but this was thought wicked: respectable repudiation demands a certain etiquette.’
Ha.
‘Finance is more powerful than industry when both are independent, but the interests of industry more nearly coincide with those of the community than do the interests of finance. This is the reason that the world has been brought to such a pass by the excessive power of finance.’
The Ancestry of Fascism:
‘In eighteenth-century England, only the opinions of aristocrats and their friends were important, and these could always be presented in rational form to other aristocrats. As the political constituency grows larger and more heterogenous, the appeal of reason becomes more difficult, since there are fewer universally conceded assumptions from which agreement can start. When such assumptions cannot be found, men are driven to rely upon their own intuitions; and since the intuitions of different groups differ, reliance upon them leads to strife and power politics.’
‘[Carlyle] passes on to the statement that democracy “means despair of finding any Heroes to govern you, and contented with putting up with the want of them.’”
Which maps on to the US right now, I feel.
Western Civilisation:
‘the Romans seem to have invented the virtue of devotion to the impersonal State as opposed to loyalty to the person of the ruler.’
‘The Jews first invented the notion that only one religion could be true, but they had no wish to convert all the world to it, and therefore persecuted only other Jews. The Christians, retaining the Judaic belief in a special revelation, added to it the Roman desire for worldwide domination and the Greek taste for metaphysical subtleties. The combination produced the most fiercely persecuting religion the world has yet known.’
Modern Homogeneity:
‘This illustrates one of the dangers of uniformity as an aim: good qualities are easier to destroy than bad ones, and therefore uniformity is most easily achieved by lowering all standards.’
Education and Discipline:
‘Consideration for others does not, with most children, arise spontaneously, but has to be taught, and hardly can be taught except by the exercise of authority. This is perhaps the most important argument against the abdication of the adults.’
‘No rules, however wise, can substitute for affection and tact.’
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2025
1. 教育的一个重要目标，就是培养人们的品位，让他们能够更加明智地利用闲暇；
2. 在所有的道德品质中，善良的天性是这个世界最需要的，但善良的天性源自松弛感和安全感，而非艰苦劳碌的人生。
3. “无用的”知识最重要的优点，是养成人们深度思考的习惯。
4. 文化教养给人提供了危害性较弱的权力，以及更值得钦佩的获得仰慕的方式；
5. 养成在思考而非行动中获得乐趣的习惯，可以预防愚昧无知和过度的权力欲，能令人在不幸中保持平静，在忧虑中保持沉着。
6. 唯命是从的人，无论是在思想上还是在行动上都缺乏主动性；不仅如此，受挫感引发的恼怒，会令他们倾向于欺负更弱小的同类以寻求宣泄。这正是专制制度永无休止的原因；
7. 一个人在其父亲那受了罪，转头便会施加在自己的儿子身上；从前在学校里遭受的欺凌，他会铭记在心，成为一国之首后便会转移给自己的“国民”。
8. 教育如果过分强调权威，会使学生变成胆小的暴君，无力开创也无法容忍任何言行上的创新
9. 如果信仰没有依据，相信来世的人会倾向于强化而非削弱死亡的恐怖，进而令那些本就没有绝对把握的人更加惶恐
10. 预防他们过度或过于频繁地思考死亡，反对的理由同反对他们沉迷色情一样，因为这种沉迷会降低效率、影响人的全面发展，进而引发令其本人和他人都不满的行为
11. 如果孩子生活在整体和睦的环境中且过得开心，他就更容易克服失去某个人的悲伤。只要正常拥有成长和幸福的机会，生活和希望的推动便足够战胜死亡的悲伤。
12. 只要非理性占据上风，人类的困境就只能靠偶然来解决。
家庭的概念现已衰落，无法再像从前那样抑制人的本能。不过，家庭失去的，正是国家收获的，因为国家吸引的，正是在当今的工业世界已无生存空间的生物本能。
2. 在所有的道德品质中，善良的天性是这个世界最需要的，但善良的天性源自松弛感和安全感，而非艰苦劳碌的人生。
3. “无用的”知识最重要的优点，是养成人们深度思考的习惯。
4. 文化教养给人提供了危害性较弱的权力，以及更值得钦佩的获得仰慕的方式；
5. 养成在思考而非行动中获得乐趣的习惯，可以预防愚昧无知和过度的权力欲，能令人在不幸中保持平静，在忧虑中保持沉着。
6. 唯命是从的人，无论是在思想上还是在行动上都缺乏主动性；不仅如此，受挫感引发的恼怒，会令他们倾向于欺负更弱小的同类以寻求宣泄。这正是专制制度永无休止的原因；
7. 一个人在其父亲那受了罪，转头便会施加在自己的儿子身上；从前在学校里遭受的欺凌，他会铭记在心，成为一国之首后便会转移给自己的“国民”。
8. 教育如果过分强调权威，会使学生变成胆小的暴君，无力开创也无法容忍任何言行上的创新
9. 如果信仰没有依据，相信来世的人会倾向于强化而非削弱死亡的恐怖，进而令那些本就没有绝对把握的人更加惶恐
10. 预防他们过度或过于频繁地思考死亡，反对的理由同反对他们沉迷色情一样，因为这种沉迷会降低效率、影响人的全面发展，进而引发令其本人和他人都不满的行为
11. 如果孩子生活在整体和睦的环境中且过得开心，他就更容易克服失去某个人的悲伤。只要正常拥有成长和幸福的机会，生活和希望的推动便足够战胜死亡的悲伤。
12. 只要非理性占据上风，人类的困境就只能靠偶然来解决。
家庭的概念现已衰落，无法再像从前那样抑制人的本能。不过，家庭失去的，正是国家收获的，因为国家吸引的，正是在当今的工业世界已无生存空间的生物本能。
April 14, 2025
gir mening for og til meg.
kan anbefales til alle
kan anbefales til alle
July 23, 2025
certain points reasonably outdated, but some very witty and interesting essays (e.g. men vs insects and on comets)
August 2, 2024
CAST-IRON RULES ARE ABOVE ALL THINGS TO BE AVOIDED.
TO ENDURE UNCERTAINTY IS DIFFICULT, BUT SO ARE MOST OF THE OTHER VIRTUES.
The constant deluge of digital information to which we are exposed can result in a debilitating form of neural addiction that gradually narrows our scope of meaningful achievement, while creating the illusion that we are actually accomplishing more with our time.
Idleness gives us the opportunity to explore, taste and try new things. Such unfettered curiosity creates new interests, these become passions, and these passions set fire to the hearts and the minds of those around us.
Good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life or arduous struggle.
A generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men, of men unduly divorced from the slow processes of nature, of me in whom every vital impulse slowly withers, as though they were cut flowers in a vase.
There was formerly a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency.
TO ENDURE UNCERTAINTY IS DIFFICULT, BUT SO ARE MOST OF THE OTHER VIRTUES.
The constant deluge of digital information to which we are exposed can result in a debilitating form of neural addiction that gradually narrows our scope of meaningful achievement, while creating the illusion that we are actually accomplishing more with our time.
Idleness gives us the opportunity to explore, taste and try new things. Such unfettered curiosity creates new interests, these become passions, and these passions set fire to the hearts and the minds of those around us.
Good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life or arduous struggle.
A generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men, of men unduly divorced from the slow processes of nature, of me in whom every vital impulse slowly withers, as though they were cut flowers in a vase.
There was formerly a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2024
Extremely accessible. It is really more social theory and criticism than hardcore philosophy but I think this makes it more applicable to our daily lives than some more theoretical works of philosophy. Russell is not always rigorously consistent in his ideas. His view of a socialist ideal while bemoaning the homogeneity of thought in modern society seems a bit contradictory to me. I guess he hopes that his socialist ideals will allow the leisure time for the masses to develop more unique thought but I don’t think this is a safe assumption.
August 7, 2025
A very interesting collection of short essays from Russell. Admittedly some texts were more interesting than others, but they were all interesting in their own ways.
What worried/interested me the most is that some arguments, complaints and commentaries from Russell were eerily current despite being written in 20s and 30s.
Highly recommend it :)
What worried/interested me the most is that some arguments, complaints and commentaries from Russell were eerily current despite being written in 20s and 30s.
Highly recommend it :)
September 15, 2024
Hm. Meeldib raamatu esimene pool kasututest teadmistest, ülejäänud esseed tunduvad misplaced. Läks ootamatult kommunismi ja fašismi peale ära.
September 30, 2024
très intéressant et très épiphanique sur la valeur morale du travail et de l'oisiveté
December 3, 2024
Thought provoking but flawed
January 28, 2025
It was not his best work, but I still enjoyed it.
March 4, 2025
Fantastic, this shook my very foundations of hard work
December 14, 2025
Not as profound or well written as his others. The socialism case was very poorly thought out, and paragraphs in general were far too large: some the whole page. The first essay was best
January 8, 2025
I feel seen…
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews