The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.
Interpretation
Work can be pleasurable if one finds satisfaction in their specialized skills without needing external validation.
Bertrand Russell’s quote emphasizes that true fulfillment from work comes not from seeking recognition or approval from others, but from the intrinsic pleasure one derives from developing and exercising one’s specialized skills. It suggests that if an individual can appreciate their own expertise and the joy it brings, they can experience the pleasure of work regardless of outside accolades.
In practice
During a team meeting, one might say this quote to encourage employees to find joy in their tasks regardless of external recognition.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.
It doesn’t matter how strong or capable you are; if you don’t have a big heart, you will not succeed.
Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you're exactly the same.
The two are not mutually exclusive, but we think we can have wealth without good ideas and without values and without a clear vision. Wealth without vision is insanity.
One of the myths you see in entrepreneurship is that people have this dream one night, wake up the next morning, and start building it. It's actually much more of an iterative process.
I always knew I was a star And now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me.
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