Bertrand Russell Quotes About Fathers

• I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race—I am ashamed to belong to such a species.

  Bertrand Russell

  Father, Hate, Pride

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.289, Routledge

• Descartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Father, Philosophy

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.45, Routledge

• The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.

  Bertrand Russell

  Funny, Family, Dad

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.158, Simon and Schuster

• The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Dad, Father

  Sceptical Essays (1928) "Freedom versus Authority in Education"

• The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them. We all feel instinctively, that our children's success reflect glory upon ourselves, while their failures make us feel shame. Unfortunately, the successes which cause us to swell with pride are often of an undesirable kind.... Neither happiness nor virtue, but worldly success, is what the average father desires for his children.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Father, Pride

• I greatly doubt whether the men who become pirate chiefs are those who are filled with retrospective terror of their fathers, or whether Napoleon , at Austerlitz, really felt that he was getting even with Madame Mère. I know nothing of the mother of Attila , but I rather suspect that she spoilt the little darling, who subsequently found the world irritating because it sometimes resisted his whims.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mother, Father, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.32, Routledge

• Marx's father became a Christian when Marx was a little boy, and some, at least, of the dogmas he must have then accepted seem to have born fruit in his son's psychology.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Father, Son

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.147, Routledge

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