Bertrand Russell Quotes About Failing

• When a man acts in ways that annoy us we wish to think him wicked, and we refuse to face the fact that his annoying behavior is the result of antecedent causes which, if you follow them long enough, will take you beyond the moment of his birth, and therefore to events for which he cannot be held responsible by any stretch of imagination... When a motorcar fails to start, we do not attribute its annoying behavior to sin, we do not say, you are a wicked motorcar, and you shall not have any more gasoline until you go.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Men, Long

• An educator should think of a child as a gardener thinks of a plant, as something to be made to grow by having the right soil and the right amount of water. If your roses fail to bloom, it does not occur to you to whip them, but you 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

  Children, Teaching, Thinking

  "The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959".

• Christianity offers reasons for not fearing death or the universe, and in so doing it fails to teach adequately the virtue of courage.

  Bertrand Russell

  Failing, Christianity, Virtue

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.34, Routledge

• Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do great harm.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Two, Way

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.356, Routledge

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