One of my favourite books was Bertrand Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness".

    My room was stuffy and almost immediately I started perspiring. Somebody had closed the window. I pushed it open and a small puny breeze blew in. I sat at the corner of my bed and opened the book.

Chapter One

What Makes People Unhappy?

    Animals are happy so long as they have health and enough to eat. Human beings, one feels, ought to be, but in the modern world they are not, at least in a great majority of cases. If you are unhappy yourself, you will probably be prepared to admit that you are not exceptional in this. If you are happy, ask yourself how many of your friends are so. And when you have reviewed your friends, teach yourself the art of reading faces; make yourself receptive to the     moods     of those     whom     you     meet       in       the     course of       an       ordinary      day.

    Suddenly I woke up. The sun poured down my back and my skin started to hurt. I wiped the moisture off my nose bridge. Just barely touching the first paragraph, I had fallen asleep.

    The causes of these various kinds of unhappiness lie partly in the social system, partly in individual psychology - which, of course, is itself   to a     considerable extent   a     product    of   the     social

Slowly I laid down. Drowsily I gave in to the heat. My arms outstretched, I dreamt of California and Europe. I was a sacrifice to the Sun.