In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays
Russell thought four hours a day would do, and that treating work as virtue was a moral confusion. Written between the wars, aimed at the machinery that produced them.
Russell’s 1935 argument that the cult of work is a moral confusion, that four hours a day would suffice, and that leisure is the precondition of civilisation rather than its reward. Written between the wars, and pointed squarely at the machinery that produced them.
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Maria Popova
We didn’t then, but maybe, just maybe, we can now with the prescription Russell offers in his wonderful essay “‘Useless Knowledge,’” later included in the altogether revelatory collection In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (public library).
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