There are two ways of coping with fear: one is to diminish the external danger, and the other is to cultivate Stoic endurance. The latter can be reinforced, except where immediate action is necessary, by turning our thoughts away from the cause of fear. The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itself degrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. Nothing has so beneficent an effect on human beings as security. …Fear, at present, overshadows the world. …If matters are to improve, the first and essential step is to find a way of diminishing fear.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "There are two ways of coping with fear: one is to diminish the external danger, and the other is to cultivate Stoic endurance. The latter can be reinforced, except where immediate action is necessary, by turning our thoughts away from the cause of fear. The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itself degrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. Nothing has so beneficent an effect on human beings as security. …Fear, at present, overshadows the world. …If matters are to improve, the first and essential step is to find a way of diminishing fear." in the context of "Bertrand Russell, Nobel Lecture: What Desires Are Politically Important? (11 December, 1950)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.