Ole Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) is a super famous British philosopher and mathematician. These are some notes and quotes (that I found interesting) from a book he wrote about trying to be happy called The Conquest of Happiness.
I've been on a philosophy/spirituality kick recently, and it's fairly rare for a modern philosopher to write so matter-of-factly about how to live a good life (which is funny because the origins of philosophy are almost exclusively about how to live the good life).
I like this book -- I read it (or most of it) when I was fresh out of college, and it didn't resonate with me so much then. On this reading I found a lot to like. That being said, it is extremely dated when it comes to women/gender roles -- Neitzche's Beyond Good and Evil suffers in the same way. Chalk it up to "the times" -- or just skip those sections.
"In adolecence, I hated life and was continually on the verge of suicide, from which, however, I was restrained by the desire to know more mathematics."
"to be without some of the things you want is an indispensible part of happiness"
"A man who has never enjoyed beautiful things in the company of a woman whom he loved has not experienced to the full the magic power of which such things are capable."
"those who have experienced love with any intensity will not be content with a philosophy that supposes their highest good to be independent of that of the person loved."
"The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all."
"It is amazing how much both happiness and efficiency can be increased by the cultivation of an orderly mind, which thinks about a matter adequately at the right time rather than inadequately at all times. When a difficult or worrying decision has to be reached, as soon as all the data are available, give the matter your best thought and make your decision; having made the decision, do not revise it unless some new fact comes to your knowledge. Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile."
"Our doings are not so important as we naturally suppose; our successes and failures do not after all matter very much. Even great sorrows can be survived; troubles which seem as if they must put an end to happiness for life, fade with the lapse of time unti it becomes almost impossible to remember their poignancy."
"every kind of fear grows worse by not being looked at"
"Whoever wishes to increase human happiness must wish to increase admiration and to diminish envy."
"the artist wishes to produce a certain kind of work, and hopes that that work may be applauded, but will not alter his style even if no applause is forthcoming."
"young people who find themselves out of harmony with their surroundings should endeavor in the choice of a profession to select some career which will give them a chance of congenial companionship, even if this should entail a considerable loss of income."
"Where the environment is stupid or prejudiced or cruel, it is a sign of merit to be out of harmony with it."
"One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."
"people should be natural, and should follow their spontaneous tastes in so far as these are not definitely antisocial."
"Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be called a friendly interest in persons and things."
"An interest in impersonal things, though perhaps less valuable as an ingredient in every day happiness than a friendly attitude towards our fellow creatures, is nevertheless very important. The world is vast and our own powers are limited. If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give. And to demand too much is the surest way of getting even less than is possible."
"The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile."
"The mind is a strange machine which can combine the materials offered to it in the most astonishing ways, but without materials from the external world, it is powerless, and unlike the sausage machine it must seize its materials for itself, since events only become experiences through the interest that we take in them: if they do not interest us, we are making nothing of them. The man, therefore, whose attention is turned within finds nothing worthy of his notice, whereas the man whose attention is turned outward can find within, in those rare moments when he examines his soul, the most varied and interesting assortment of ingredients being dissected and recombined into beautiful or instructive patterns."
"To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future."