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This is from chapter 15 (The Value of Philosophy) of B. Russell's (1912) The Problems of Philosophy . A friend sent it to me a while back, asking if I thought the sentiment was relevant for any President in particular. I just came across it again while looking for something else. As it always happens.
The private world of instinctive interests is a small one, set in the midst of a great and powerful world which must, sooner or later, lay our private world in ruins. Unless we can so enlarge our interests as to include the whole outer world, we remain like a garrison in a beleagured fortress, knowing that the enemy prevents escape and that ultimate surrender is inevitable. In such a life there is no peace, but a constant strife between the insistence of desire and the powerlessness of will. In one way or another, if our life is to be great and free, we must escape this prison and this strife.
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