(no subject)

It must, I think, be admitted that the most intelligent young people in Western countries tend to have that kind of unhappiness that comes of no adequate employment for their best talents.

...

Cynicism such as one finds very frequently among the most highly educated young men and women of the West results from the combination of comfort with powerlessness. Powerlessness makes people feel that nothing is worth doing, and comfort makes the painfulness of this feeling just endurable.

-Bertrand Russell, 1930

The ConQuest of Happiness