Bertrand Russell Quotes About Pleasure

• There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Useless, Pleasure

  "In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 2: 'Useless' Knowledge, 1935.

• Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

  Bertrand Russell

  Power, Men, Religion

  The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine, March 6, 1938.

• Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

  Bertrand Russell

  Intelligent, Agreement, Pleasure

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.554, Routledge

• Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Political, Next, Acquisition

  'Sceptical Essays' (1928) 'Recrudescence of Puritanism'

• Any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, People, Doe

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.89, Lulu Press, Inc

• I read Zuleika Dobson with pleasure. It represents the Oxford that the two World Wars have destroyed with a charm that is not likely to be reproduced anywhere in the world for the next thousand years.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Years, Oxford

• It seems to me now that mathematics is capable of an artistic excellence as great as that of any music, perhaps greater; not because the pleasure it gives (although very pure) is comparable, either in intensity or in the number of people who feel it, to that of music, but because it gives in absolute perfection that combination, characteristic of great art, of godlike freedom, with the sense of inevitable destiny; because, in fact, it constructs an ideal world where everything is perfect and yet true.

  Bertrand Russell

  Art, Destiny, Numbers

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.162, Routledge

• Fervent religious believers sacrifice pleasures of the body, but instead enjoy pleasures of the mind, including the joy of knowing that those men who didn't follow their religion would be tortured for eternity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religious, Sacrifice, Men

• You may, if you are an old-fashioned schoolmaster, wish to consider yourself full of universal benevolence and at the same time derive great pleasure from caning boys. In order to reconcile these two desires you have to persuade yourself that caning

  Bertrand Russell

  Fashion, Boys, Order

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.425, Psychology Press

• 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

• Altogether it will be found that a quiet life is characteristic of great men, and that their pleasures have not been of the sort that would look exciting to the outward eye.

  Bertrand Russell

  Eye, Men, Looks

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.35, Lulu Press, Inc

• The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Religion, Ordinary

  Sceptical Essays

• Human nature being what it is, people will insist upon getting some pleasure out of life.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Human Nature, Pleasure

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.106, Psychology Press

• Adventurous men enjoy shipwrecks, mutinies, earthquakes, conflagrations, and all kinds of unpleasant experiences. They say to themselves, for example, 'So this is what an earthquake is like,' and it gives them pleasure to have their knowledge of the world increased by this new item.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Earthquakes, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.114, Routledge

• The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Skills, Satisfaction

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.104, Routledge

• Skilled work, of no matter what kind, is only done well by those who take a certain pleasure in it, quite apart from its utility, either to themselves in earning a living, or to the world through its outcome.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Done, World

You May Also Like:

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Gottlob Frege

Alfred North Whitehead

David Hume

Russell Crowe

G. H. Hardy

Immanuel Kant