Bertrand Russell Quotes About War

• War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, Military, War

• The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, War, Teaching

  "Why I Am Not a Christian".

• Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spiritual, War, Evil

  Charles Chatfield, Bertrand Russell, Ralph Barton Perry (1972). “ETHICS OF WAR”, Dissertations-G

• I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Children, War

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.240, Psychology Press

• You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, War, Race

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Edward Egner (1961). “The basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”

• And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, War, Stupid

  Bertrand Russell, Ray Perkins (Jr.) (2002). “Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor”, p.35, Open Court Publishing

• Science seems to be at war with itself.... Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Science, Technology

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

  Bertrand Russell

  Sweet, War, Political

• War doesn't determine who's right, it determines who's left

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Determine, Left

• 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

• Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favour of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, War, Pestilence

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

• War...seems a mere madness, a collective insanity.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Insanity, Madness

• There are three ways of securing a society that shall be stable as regards population. The first is that of birth control, the second that of infanticide or really destructive wars, and the third that of general misery except for a powerful minority.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, War, Eugenics

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.117, Routledge

• It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Government, Serious

  David Herbert Lawrence, Bertrand Russell (1948). “Letters to Bertrand Russell”

• When two great powers disagree about anything - it doesn't matter what - they must find a way to settle it somehow by arbitration or by negotiation, not by war or threat of war.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Two, Arbitration

• The criminal law has, from the point of view of thwarted virtue, the merit of allowing an outlet for those impulses of aggression which cowardice, disguised as morality, restrains in their more spontaneous forms. War has the same merit. You must not kill you neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little propaganda this hate can be transferred to some foreign nation, against whom all your murderous impulses become patriotic heroism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hate, War, Patriotic

• Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, War, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.276, Routledge

• One must expect a war between U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. which will begin with the total destruction of London. I think the war will last 30 years, and leave a world without civilised people, from which everything will have to build afresh - a process taking (say) 500 years.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Thinking, Years

  Letter to Gamel Brenan (September 1, 1945), "The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell" edited by Nicholas Griffin, (p. 410), 2002.

• There is... in our day, a powerful antidote to nonsense, which hardly existed in earlier times - I mean science. Science cannot be ignored or rejected, because it is bound up with modern technique; it is essential alike to prosperity in peace and to victory in war. That is, perhaps from an intellectual point of view, the most hopeful feature of our age, and the one which makes it most likely that we shall escape complete submersion in some new or old superstition.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Spring, War

• War grows out of ordinary human nature.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Ordinary, Human Nature

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.5, Lulu Press, Inc

• 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

• It would now be technically possible to unify the world, abolish war and poverty altogether, if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Men, Enemy

• Against the vast majority of my countrymen, even at this moment, in the name of humanity and civilization, I protest against our share in the destruction of Germany. A month ago Europe was a peaceful comity of nations; if an Englishman killed a German, he was hanged. Now, if an Englishman kills a German, or if a German kills an Englishman, he is a patriot, who has deserved well of his country.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, War, Europe

  Bertrand Russell (1994). “Prophecy and Dissent, 1914-16”, p.7, Psychology Press

• At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Victory, Facts

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.99, Psychology Press

• With civilized men..., it is, I think, chiefly love of excitement which makes the populace applaud when war breaks out; the emotion is exactly the same as at a football match, although the results are sometimes somewhat more serious.

  Bertrand Russell

  Football, War, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.451, Routledge

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