Fear of public opinion, like every other form of fear, is oppressive and stunts growth.
 Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness (1930). copy citation

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

Context

“This will undoubtedly increase their happiness, but it will of course diminish the sadistic pleasure which the conventional at present derive from having the unconventional at their mercy. I do not think, however, that this is a pleasure which we need be greatly concerned to preserve. Fear of public opinion, like every other form of fear, is oppressive and stunts growth. It is difficult to achieve any kind of greatness while a fear of this kind remains strong, and it is impossible to acquire that freedom of spirit in which true happiness consists, for it is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbours, or even our relations.” source