Bertrand Russell Quotes About Lying

• I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Atheist, Fear

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

• The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, Real, Lying

  Bertrand Russell, Dora Russell (1959). “The Prospects of Industrial Civilization”, p.216, Psychology Press

• 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

  Lying, Essence, May

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.400, Psychology Press

• I conclude that, while it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Knowledge, Science

  Bertrand Russell (1997). “Religion and Science”, p.243, Oxford University Press, USA

• Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Philosophy, Asking Questions

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.18, Bertrand Russell

• There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them and feel justified in lying to them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Children, Lying

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.177, Simon and Schuster

• It is in our hearts that evil lies, and it is from our hearts that it must be plucked out.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Heart, Evil

  Bertrand Russell (1962). “Has Man a Future?”

• When I say that children should be told about sex, I do not mean that they should be told only the bare physiological facts; they should be told whatever they wish to know. There should be no attempt to represent adults as more virtuous than they are, or sex as occurring only in marriage. There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them, and feel justified in lying to them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sex, Children, Lying

  Bertrand Russell (1987). “Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage”

• 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

• A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Lying, Real

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.87, Simon and Schuster

• The road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Hard Work, Prosperity

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

• So in everything: power lies with those who control finance, not with those who know the matter upon which the money is to be spent. Thus, the holders of power are, in general, ignorant and malevolent, and the less they exercise their power the better.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Exercise, Ignorant

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.153, Psychology Press

• There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Shall we instead choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal as a human being to human beings; remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, Lying, Humanity

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.716, Routledge

• I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of WORK, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in the organised diminution of work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Done, World

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.3, Psychology Press

• I must confess that I am deeply troubled. I fear that human beings are intent upon acting out a vast deathwish and that it lies with us now to make every effort to promote resistance to the insanity and brutality of policies which encompass the extermination of hundreds of millions of human beings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Effort, Insanity

  Bertrand Russell (1967). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”

• In spite of Death, the mark and seal of the parental control, Man is yet free, during his brief years, to examine, to criticise, to know, and in imagination to create. To him alone, in the world with which he is acquainted, this freedom belongs; and in this lies his superiority to the resistless forces that control his outward life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Men, Years

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.75, Bertrand Russell

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