Fear is the principal reason why men are so unwilling to admit facts and so anxious to wrap themselves round in a warm garment of myth.
 Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness (1930). copy citation

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Author Bertrand Russell
Source The Conquest of Happiness
Topic fear reason
Date 1930
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://russell-j.com/beginner/COH-TEXT.HTM

Context

“Among such passions some of the commonest are fear, envy, the sense of sin, self-pity and self-admiration. In all these our desires are centred upon ourselves: there is no genuine interest in the outer world, but only a concern lest it should in some way injure us or fail to feed our ego. Fear is the principal reason why men are so unwilling to admit facts and so anxious to wrap themselves round in a warm garment of myth. But the thorns tear the warm garment and the cold blasts penetrate through the rents, and the man who has become accustomed to its warmth suffers far more from these blasts than a man who has hardened himself to them from the first.” source