Bertrand Russell Quotes About Habits

• 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 habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. 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

  Courage, Men, Light

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Why Men Fight”, p.107, Routledge

• The most essential characteristic of scientific technique is that it proceeds from experiment, not from tradition. The experimental habit of mind is a difficult one for most people to maintain; indeed, the science of one generation has already become the tradition of the next

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Mind, Next

  Bertrand Russell (2001). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.115, Psychology Press

• 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

  Privilege, Revolutionary, Habit

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Why Men Fight”, p.107, Routledge

• Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sweet, War, Political

• 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

  Leadership, Girl, Teacher

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Why Men Fight”, p.106, Routledge

• The painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking that things seem to have the color which common sense says they 'really' have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Color, Common Sense

  Bertrand Russell (1959). “The problems of philosophy”

• Almost all education has a political motive: it aims at strengthening some group, national or religious or even social, in the competition with other groups. It is this motive, in the main, which determines the subjects taught, the knowledge offered and the knowledge withheld, and also decides what mental habits the pupils are expected to acquire. Hardly anything is done to foster the inward growth of mind and spirit; in fact, those who have had the most education are very often atrophied in their mental and spiritual life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spiritual, Religious, Educational

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

• When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Emotional, Favour

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.31, Bertrand Russell

• A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree or certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world suffers.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Science, Giving

• We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Addiction, Income, Habit

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.113, Psychology Press

• One of the commonest things to do with savings is to lend them to some Government. In view of the fact that the bulk of the public expenditure of most civilized Governments consists in payment for past wars or preparation for future wars, the man who lends his money to a Government is in the same position as the bad men in Shakespeare who hire murderers. The net result of the man's economical habits is to increase the armed forces of the State to which he lends his savings. Obviously it would be better if he spent the money, even if he spent it in drink or gambling.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Men, Past

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.5, Lulu Press, Inc

• I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Integrity, Mean, Leaving

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.598, Psychology Press

• The habit of looking to the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. There can be no value in the whole unless there is value in the parts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Time, Lying, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.16, Lulu Press, Inc

• Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

  Bertrand Russell

  Discipline, Mind, Willpower

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.26, Routledge

• A habit of finding pleasure in thought rather than action is a safeguard against unwisdom and excessive love of power, a means of preserving serenity in misfortune and peace of mind among worries. A life confined to what is personal is likely, sooner or later, to become unbearably painful; it is only by windows into a larger and less fretful cosmos that the more tragic parts of life become endurable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mean, Worry, Serenity

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.310, Psychology Press

• Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit.

  Bertrand Russell

  Privilege, Habit, Institutions

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.96, Lulu Press, Inc

• Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.

  Bertrand Russell

  Encouragement, Truth, Teaching

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.45, 谷月社

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