Bertrand Russell Quotes About Purpose

• A logical theory may be tested by its capacity for dealing with puzzles, and it is a wholesome plan, in thinking about logic, to stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible, since these serve much the same purpose as is served by experiments in physical science.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Mind, Purpose

  Bertrand Russell, Alasdair Urquhart, Albert C. Lewis (1994). “Foundations of Logic, 1903-05”, p.420, Psychology Press

• Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religion, Atheism, Purpose

• The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Doubt, Atheism

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

• Education, which was at first made universal in order that all might be able to read and write, has been found capable of serving quite other purposes. By instilling nonsense it unifies populations and generates collective enthusiasm.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Writing, School

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.61, Routledge

• The world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. For my part, I find accident a less painful and more plausible hypothesis.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religion, Purpose, World

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

• When conscious activity is wholly concentrated on some one definite purpose, the ultimate result, for most people, is lack of balance accompanied by some form of nervous disorder.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Focus, Balance

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.22, Psychology Press

• A word is used "correctly" when the average hearer will be affected by it in the way intended. This is a psychological, not a literary, definition of "correctness". The literary definition would substitute, for the average hearer, a person of high education living a long time ago; the purpose of this definition is to make it difficult to speak or write correctly.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Average, Long

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Analysis of Mind: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.115, 谷月社

• The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Night, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.40, Lulu Press, Inc

• The white tails of rabbits, according to some theologians, have a purpose, namely to make it easier for sportsmen to shoot them.

  Bertrand Russell

  White, Rabbits, Tails

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.53, Routledge

• If life is to be fully human it must serve some end which seems, in some sense, outside human life, some end which is impersonal and above mankind, such as God or truth or beauty. Those who best promote life do not have life for their purpose. They aim rather at what seems like a gradual incarnation, a bringing into our human existence of something eternal, something that appears to imagination to live in a heaven remote from strife and failure and the devouring jaws of Time.

  Bertrand Russell

  Imagination, Heaven, Purpose

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.144, Lulu Press, Inc

• The raw fruits of the earth were made for human sustenance. Even the white tails of rabbits, according to some theologians, have a purpose, namely to make it easier for sportsmen to shoot them. There are, it is true, some inconveniences: lions and tigers are too fierce, the summer is too hot, and the winter too cold. But these things only began after Adam ate the apple; I before that, all animals were vegetarians, and the season was always spring. If only Adam had been content with peaches and nectarines, grapes and pears and pineapples, these blessings would still be ours.

  Bertrand Russell

  Summer, Spring, Winter

• The purpose of education is to teach a defense against eloquence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Defense, Purpose, Teach

• There are two ways of avoiding fear: one is by persuading ourselves that we are immune from disaster, and the other is by the practice of sheer courage. The latter is difficult, and to everybody becomes impossible at a certain point. The former has therefore always been more popular. Primitive magic has the purpose of securing safety, either by injuring enemies, or by protecting oneself by talismans, spells, or incantations.

  Bertrand Russell

  Practice, Two, Safety

  Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

• Bacon not only despised the syllogism, but undervalued mathematics, presumably as insufficiently experimental. He was virulently hostile to Aristotle , but he thought very highly of Democritus , Although he did not deny that the course of nature exemplifies a Divine purpose, he objected to any admixture of teleological explanation in the actual investigation of phenomena; everything, he held, should be explained as following necessarily from efficient causes .

  Bertrand Russell

  Purpose, Causes, Mathematics

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.499, Routledge

• In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Mean, Government

  The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955.

• Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men that comes chiefly through their work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Running, Work, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.122, Lulu Press, Inc

• Even if it is indifferent to human desires, as it seems to be; if human life is a passing episode, hardly noticeable in the vastness of cosmic processes; if there is no superhuman purpose, and no hope of ultimate salvation, it is better to know and acknowledge this truth than to endeavor, in futile self-assertion, to order the universe to be what we find comfortable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Order, Self, Desire

• 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

• The State is a collection of officials, different for difference purposes, drawing comfortable incomes so long as the status quo is preserved. The only alteration they are likely to desire in the status quo is an increase of bureaucracy and the power of bureaucrats.

  Bertrand Russell

  Drawing, Differences, Long

  "Sceptical Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell. Chapter 12: "Free Thought and Official Propaganda", 1928.

• The atomists , unlike Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , sought to explain the world without introducing the notion of purpose or final cause.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Finals, Purpose

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.64, Routledge

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