| "Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform." Bertrand Russell |
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| "Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education." Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| "The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry." Bertrand Russell |
| "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| "To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead." Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| "War does not determine who is right - only who is left." Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Francis Bacon, a man who rose to eminence by betraying his friends, asserted, no doubt as one of the ripe lessons of experience, that "knowledge is power Bertrand Russell Quotations |
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| A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live Bertrand Russell |
| A process which led from the amoebae to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoebae would agree with this opinion is not known. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation. Bertrand Russell |
| A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate Bertrand Russell |
| Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| All men are scoundrels, or at any rate almost all. The men who are not must have had unusual luck, both in their birth and in their upbringing Bertrand Russell |
| All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things : That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave Bertrand Russell |
| Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century. Bertrand Russell |
| Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. Bertrand Russell |
| Americans need rest, but do not know it. I believe this to be a large part of the explanation of the crime wave in the United States. Bertrand Russell |
| An educator should think of a child as a garderner thinks of a plant, as something to be made to grow by having the right soil and the right kind amount of water. If your roses fail to bloom, it does not occur to you to whip them, but you should try to find out what has been amiss in your treatment of them... The important thing is what The Children do, and not what they do not do. And what they do, if it is to have value, must be a spontaneous expression of their own vital energy. Bertrand Russell |
| An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet. Bertrand Russell |
| Anything you're good at contributes to happiness. Bertrand Russell |
| Anything you're good at contributes to happiness Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by sceptics Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| By religion I mean a set of beliefs held as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, going beyond or contrary to evidence, and inculcated by methods which are emotional or authoritarian, not intellectual Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| By self-interest, Man has become gregarious, but in instinct he has remained to a great extent solitary; hence the need of religion and morality to reinforce self-interest Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| By studying the principles of symbolism we can learn not to be unconsciously influenced by language, and in this way can escape a host of erroneous notions. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion? Bertrand Russell |
| Change is one thing, progress is another. "Change" is scientific, "progress" is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy. Bertrand Russell |
| Change is scientific, progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy. Bertrand Russell |
| Civilized people cannot fully satisfy their sexual instinct without love Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. Bertrand Russell |
| Common sense is what tells you that the world is flat. Bertrand Russell |
| Common sense, however it tries, cannot avoid being surprised from time to time. Bertrand Russell |
| Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame. Bertrand Russell |
| Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Do not feel certain of anything Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster. Psychologically the situation is analogous to that of people trampled to death when there is a panic in a theatre caused by a cry of `Fire!' Bertrand Russell |
| Drunkenness is temporary suicide. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Drunkenness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness Bertrand Russell |
| Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes Bertrand Russell |
| Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own. Bertrand Russell |
| Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. Bertrand Russell |
| Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions which move with him like flies on a summer day Bertrand Russell |
| Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life. Bertrand Russell |
| Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Bertrand Russell |
| Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed Bertrand Russell |
| For over two thousand years it has been the custom among earnest moralists to decry happiness as something degraded and unworthy Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires Bertrand Russell Adages |
| God is a reality of spirit... He cannot... be conceived as an object, not even as the very highest object. God is not to be found in the world of objects. Bertrand Russell |
| Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly Bertrand Russell |
| Hatred of enemies is easier and more intense than love of friends. But from men who are more anxious to injure opponents than to benefit the world at large no great good is to be expected. Bertrand Russell |
| He can have few rivals in the courage and integrity and complete self-abnegation with which he has given up his own career (in which, however, he still remains eminent) to devote himself to combating the nuclear peril as well as other, allied evils. Bertrand Russell |
| Herd pressure is to be judged by two things : first, its intensity, and second, its direction Bertrand Russell |
| Human life, its growth, its hopes, fears, loves, et cetera, are the result of accidents Bertrand Russell |
| I am compelled to fear that science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups rather than to make men happy. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| I am not myself in any degree ashamed of having changed my opinions Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| I believe in using words, not fists... I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex. Bertrand Russell |
| I do not pretend that birth control is the only way in which population can be kept from increasing. There are others, which, one must suppose, opponents of birth control would prefer. Bertrand Russell |
| I do so hate to leave this world Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. Education and the Social Order Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| I have sought love because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven the saints and poets have imagined Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine. Bertrand Russell |
| I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| I've always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel. Bertrand Russell |
| I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it Bertrand Russell Adages |
| If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. Bertrand Russell |
| If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument Bertrand Russell |
| If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation will you prefer the grain to the vote? Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| If politics is to become scientific, and if the event is not to be constantly surprising, it is imperative that our political thinking should penetrate more deeply into the springs of human action Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years. Bertrand Russell |
| If two hitherto rival football teams, under the influence of brotherly love, decided to co-operate in placing the football first beyond one goal and then beyond the other, no one's happiness would be increased Bertrand Russell |
| If we could all live solitary and without labor, we could all enjoy this ecstasy of independence; since we cannot, its delights are only available to madmen and dictators Bertrand Russell |
| If we were all given by magic power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships Bertrand Russell |
| If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| In all affairs, love, religion, politics, or business, it's a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted Bertrand Russell |
| In America everybody is of opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards. Bertrand Russell |
| In conclusion, there is a marvelous anecdote from the occasion of Russell's ninetieth birthday that best serves to summarize his attitude toward God and religion. A London lady sat next to him at this party, and over the soup she suggested to him that he was not only the world's most famous atheist but, by this time, very probably the world's oldest atheist. "What will you do, Bertie, if it turns out you're wrong?" she asked. "I mean, what if -- uh -- when the time comes, you should meet Him? What will you say?" Russell was delighted with the question. His bright, birdlike eyes grew even brighter as he contemplated this possible future dialogue, and then he pointed a finger upward and cried, "Why, I should say, 'God, you gave us insufficient evidence.'" Al Seckel, in Preface to Bertrand Russell on God and Religion Bertrand Russell |
| In order to be happy we require all kinds of supports to our self-esteem. We are human beings, therefore human beings are the purpose of god's creation Bertrand Russell |
| In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires. Bertrand Russell |
| It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this. Bertrand Russell |
| It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living. Bertrand Russell |
| It is illegal in England to state in print that a wife can and should derive sexual pleasure from intercourse Bertrand Russell |
| It is only the intellect that keeps me sane; perhaps this makes me overvalue intellect against feeling Bertrand Russell |
| It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion Bertrand Russell |
| It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly Bertrand Russell |
| It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| It is true that if we ever did stop to think about the cosmos we might find it uncomfortable. The sun may grow cold or blow up; the earth may lose its atmosphere and become uninhabitable Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. ...It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education. Bertrand Russell |
| It's a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Law in origin was merely a codification of the power of dominant groups, and did not aim at anything that to a modern man would appear to be justice Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Love as a relation between men and women was ruined by the desire to make sure of the legitimacy of children Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Love is, above all, the gift of oneself. Bertrand Russell |
| Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones Bertrand Russell |
| Man is a feeble creature, to whom only submission and worship are besoming. Pride is insolence, and belief in human power is impiety Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Mankind . . . are a mistake. The universe would be sweeter and fresher without them Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do. Bertrand Russell |
| Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so. Bertrand Russell |
| Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Mathematics is the only science where one never knows what one is talking about nor whether what is said is true Bertrand Russell |
| Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Mathematics, rightly viewed, posses not only truth, but supreme beauty; a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture Bertrand Russell |
| Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture. Bertrand Russell |
| Measures of sterilization should, in my opinion, be very definitely confined to persons who are mentally defective Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and Swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and Swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think that he is the Governor of the Bank of England, another will think he is the King, and yet another will think he is God. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires Bertrand Russell |
| Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power. Bertrand Russell |
| My first advice on how not to grow old would be to choose you ancestors carefully. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Never let yourself be diverted either by what you would wish to believe or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed. Look only at . . . the facts. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Nine-tenths of the appeal of pornography is due to the indecent feelings concerning sex which moralists inculcate in the young; the other tenth is physiological, and will occur in one way or another whatever the state of the law may be. Bertrand Russell |
| No great achievement is possible without persistent work. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he believes to be of value. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| No man treats a motor car as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behavior to sin, he does not say, "You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go." He attempts to find out what is wrong and set it right. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| No one gossips about other people's secret virtues. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| No one gossips about other people's secret virtues. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful? Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear. Bertrand Russell |
| Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Not... what opinions are held, but... how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, [liberal] opinions are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate. Bertrand Russell |
| Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. Bertrand Russell |
| One occasion for theological intervention to prevent the mitigation of human suffering was the discovery of anesthetics Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell |
| One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell |
| One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny Bertrand Russell |
| One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of mankind will be brief if measured in astronomical scale Bertrand Russell |
| Owing to the identification of religion with virtue, together with the fact that the most religious men are not the most intelligent, a religious education gives courage to the stupid to resist the authority of educated men Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position. Bertrand Russell |
| Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| People are zealous for a cause when they are not quite positive that it is true Bertrand Russell |
| Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable, at least in its main outlines. Bertrand Russell |
| Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable, at least in its main outlines. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity. Bertrand Russell |
| Reason is a harmonizing, controlling force rather than a creative one. Bertrand Russell |
| Religion and Science are two aspects of social life, of which the former has been important as far back as we know anything of man’s mental history, while the latter, after a fitful flickering existence among the Greeks and Arabs, suddenly sprang into importance in the sixteenth century, and has ever since increasingly moulded both the ideas and institutions among which we live. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines. Bertrand Russell |
| Religions that teach brotherly love have been used as an excuse for persecution, and our profoundest scientific insight is made into a means of mass destruction. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| Rules of conduct, whatever they may be are not sufficient to produce good results unless the ends sought are good Bertrand Russell |
| Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead Bertrand Russell |
| Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Sex outside marriage is sin; sex within marriage is not sin. Bertrand Russell |
| Sin is geographical. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| Some `advanced thinkers' are of the opinion that anyone who differs from the conventional opinion must be in the right. This is a delusion; if it were not, truth would be easier to come by than it is Bertrand Russell Remarks |
Suddenly the ground seemed to give way beneath me,
and I found myself in quite another region.
Within five minutes I went through
some such reflections as the following:
the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable;
nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity
of the sort of love that religious teachers have preached;
whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful,
or at best useless;
it follows that war is wrong,
that a public school education is abominable,
that the use of force is to be deprecated,
and that in human relations one should penetrate
to the core of loneliness in each person and speak to that. Bertrand Russell |
| That which exists through itself is called The Eternal. The Eternal has neither name nor shape. It is the one essence, the one primal spirit. Essence and life cannot be seen. They are contained in the light of heaven. The light of heaven cannot be seen. It is contained in the two eyes. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| The atomic bomb embodies the results of a combination genius and patience as remarkable as any in the history of mankind. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell |
| The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life. Bertrand Russell |
| The commonest objection to birth control is that it is against nature. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| The conception of purpose is a natural one to apply to a human artificer. A man who desires a house cannot, except in the Arabian Nights, have it rise before him as a result of his mere wish; time and labor must be expended before his wish can be gra Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts. Bertrand Russell |
| The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice Bertrand Russell |
| The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. ... But so long as men are not trained to withhold judgment in the absence of evidence, they will be led astray by cocksure prophets, and it is likely that their leaders will be either ignorant fanatics or dishonest charlatans. To endure uncertainty is difficult, but so are most of the other virtues. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| The desire for excitement is very deep-seated in human beings, eI was a solitary, shy, priggish youth. I had no experience of the social pleasures of boyhood and did not miss them. But I liked mathematics, and mathematics was suspect because it has n Bertrand Russell Adages |
| The essence of life is doing things for their own sakes. Bertrand Russell |
| The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible Bertrand Russell |
| The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russell |
| The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics. Bertrand Russell |
| The fundamental defect of Christian ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts 'sins' and others 'virtue' on grounds that have nothing to do with their social consequences Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Bertrand Russell |
| The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution Bertrand Russell |
| The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. Bertrand Russell |
| The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as a means to other account, and not merely as a means to other things, are knowledge, art instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection. Bertrand Russell |
| The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith. Bertrand Russell |
| The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself. Bertrand Russell |
| The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| The professors must not prevent us from realizing that history is fun, and that the most bizarre things really happen Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| The pursuit of knowledge is, I think, mainly actuated by love of power Bertrand Russell |
| The qualities most needed are charity and tolerance, not some form of fanatical faith such as is offered to us by the various rampant isms Bertrand Russell |
| The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| The root of the matter… the thing I mean… is love, Christian love, or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide for action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty. Bertrand Russell |
| The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible Bertrand Russell Adages |
| The teacher, like the artist and the philosopher, can perform his work adequately only if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority. Bertrand Russell |
| The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilized men. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| The three main extra-rational activities in modern life are religion, war, and love; all these are extra-rational, but love is not anti-rational, that is to say, a reasonable man may reasonably rejoice in its existence Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Bertrand Russell |
| The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt Bertrand Russell |
| The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. Bertrand Russell |
| The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours. Bertrand Russell |
| The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things Bertrand Russell |
| The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Bertrand Russell |
| There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| There is little of the true philosophic spirit in Aquinas. He does not, like the Platonic Socrates, set out to follow wherever the argument may lead. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| There is no difference between someone who eats too little and sees Heaven and someone who drinks too much and sees snakes Bertrand Russell |
| There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less. Bertrand Russell |
| There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| There is... in our day, a powerful antidote to nonsense, which hardly existed in earlier times - I mean science. Science cannot be ignored or rejected, because it is bound up with modern technique; it is essential alike to prosperity in peace and to victory in war. That is, perhaps from an intellectual point of view, the most hopeful feature of our age, and the one which makes it most likely that we shall escape complete submersion in some new or old superstition. Bertrand Russell |
| There's a Bible on the shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire-poison and antidote. Bertrand Russell |
| These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| Thinking you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. Bertrand Russell |
| This is a pretty fable, and I will not deny that it is logically possible, but that is the utmost that I will concede. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities. Bertrand Russell |
| Those who fear life are already three parts dead. Bertrand Russell |
| Those who first advocated religious toleration were thought wicked, and so were the early opponents of slavery. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires. Bertrand Russell |
| Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favor of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and Swift and free. Bertrand Russell |
| Three passions, simple but overwhelming, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Bertrand Russell |
| Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Bertrand Russell |
| Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject Bertrand Russell |
| To be able to concentrate for a considerable time is essential to difficult achievement Bertrand Russell |
| To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Bertrand Russell |
| To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future. Bertrand Russell |
| To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. Bertrand Russell |
| To be worthy of the name, he must be free of two things; the force of tradition and tyranny of his own passions. Bertrand Russell |
| To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Bertrand Russell |
| To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead. Bertrand Russell |
| To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do. Bertrand Russell |
| To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without, being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can do for those who study it Bertrand Russell |
| Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of political events. Bertrand Russell |
| Undoubtedly the desire for food has been, and still is, one of the main causes of great political events Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Bertrand Russell |
| War does not determine who is right - only who is left. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. Bertrand Russell |
| We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one that we preach, but do not practice, and another that we practice, but seldom preach. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach. Bertrand Russell |
| We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach. Bertrand Russell |
| We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach. Bertrand Russell |
| We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side; one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach. Bertrand Russell |
| We must care about the world of our children and grandchildren, a world we may never see. Bertrand Russell |
| What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. Bertrand Russell |
| What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices. Bertrand Russell |
| What makes a belief true or false I call a "fact." The particular fact that makes a given belief true or false I call its "objective," and the relation of the belief to its objective I call the "reference" or the "objective reference" of the belief. Thus, if I believe that Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492, the "objective" of my belief is Columbus's actual voyage, and the "reference" of my belief is the relation between my belief and the voyage--that relation, namely, in virtue of which the voyage makes my belief true (or, in another case, false). "Reference" of beliefs differs from "meaning" of words in various ways, but especially in the fact that it is of two kinds, "true" reference and "false" reference. The truth or falsehood of a belief does not depend upon anything intrinsic to the belief, but upon the nature of its relation to its objective. The intrinsic nature of belief can be treated without reference to what makes it true or false. Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| What men want is not knowledge, but certainty. Bertrand Russell |
| What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer. Bertrand Russell Quotations |
| What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it's easy to have glory without power. Bertrand Russell Sayings |
| When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also add that some things are more nearly certain than others Bertrand Russell |
| When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also add that some things are more nearly certain than others. "Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?" Bertrand Russell Popular Quotes |
| When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. Bertrand Russell |
| When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favor of the belief which he finds in himself Bertrand Russell |
| When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory. Bertrand Russell |
| Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure. Bertrand Russell |
| With civilized men..., it is, I think, chiefly love of excitement which makes the populace applaud when war breaks out; the emotion is exactly the same as at a football match, although the results are sometimes somewhat more serious. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine. Bertrand Russell Adages |
| Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so. Bertrand Russell Remarks |
| Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matters; second, telling other people to do so. Bertrand Russell Quotes |
| You must not kill your neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little pr |
