Bertrand Russell Quotes About Enemies

• 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. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can only be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Enemy, Suffering

  "The Science to Save Us from Science". The New York Times Magazine, March 19, 1950.

• 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

  Death, Christian, Atheist

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

• You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, War, Race

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Edward Egner (1961). “The basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”

• In democratic countries, the most important private organizations are economic. Unlike secret societies, they are able to exercise their terrorism without illegality, since they do not threaten to kill their enemies, but only to starve them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Exercise, Organization

• God and Satan alike are essentially human figures, the one a projection of ourselves, the other of our enemies.

  Bertrand Russell

  Enemy, Satan, Figures

  Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

• Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.

  Bertrand Russell

  Character, Men, Self

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Authority and the Individual”, p.51, Routledge

• Speaking psycho-analytically, it may be laid down that any "great ideal" which people mention with awe is really an excuse for inflicting pain on their enemies. Good wine needs no bush, and good morals need no bated breath.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pain, Wine, People

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.240, Routledge

• It would now be technically possible to unify the world, abolish war and poverty altogether, if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Men, Enemy

• 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

  Love, Hate, Men

  Bertrand Russell (1972). “Bolshevism: practice and theory”, Ayer Co Pub

• Obviousness is always the enemy of correctness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Enemy, Obviousness, Economics

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.48, 谷月社

• We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Depressing, Hate, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

• We are told that Sin consists in acting contrary to God's commands, but we are also told that God is omnipotent. . . . This leads to frightful results. . . . The British State considers it the duty of an Englishman to kill people who are not English whenever a collection of elderly gentlemen in Westminster tells him to do so. . . . Church and State are placable enemies of both intelligence and virtue.

  Bertrand Russell

  Elderly, People, Gentleman

• There are two ways of avoiding fear: one is by persuading ourselves that we are immune from disaster, and the other is by the practice of sheer courage. The latter is difficult, and to everybody becomes impossible at a certain point. The former has therefore always been more popular. Primitive magic has the purpose of securing safety, either by injuring enemies, or by protecting oneself by talismans, spells, or incantations.

  Bertrand Russell

  Practice, Two, Safety

  Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

• Force plays a much larger part in the government of the world than it did before 1914, and what is especially alarming, force tends increasingly to fall into the hands of those who are enemies of civilization.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fall, Government, Hands

  Bertrand Russell, Harry Ruja (2014). “Mortals and Others, Volume II: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.27, Routledge

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