Bertrand Russell Quotes About Writing

• I have found, for example, that if I have to write upon sum rather difficult topic, the best plan is to think about it with very great intensity-the greatest intensity of which I am capable-for a few hours or days, and at the end of that time give orders, so to speak (to my subconscious mind) that the work is to proceed underground. After some months I return consciously to the topic and find that the work has been done.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Thinking, Order

• Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing

• A man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if indeed such a man exists.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Men, History

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.465, Routledge

• Man has existed for about a million years. He has possessed writing for about 6,000 years, agriculture somewhat longer, but perhaps not much longer. Science, as a dominant factor in determining the belief of educated men, has existed for about 300 years; as a source of economic technique, for about 150 years. In this brief period it has proved itself an incredibly powerful revolutionary force. When we consider how recently it has risen to power, we find ourselves forced to believe that we are at the very beginning of its work in transforming human life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Believe, Writing

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.1, Routledge

• Writing can be either readable or precise, but not at the same time.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Precise

• 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

• I am paid by the word, so I always write the shortest words possible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Paid

• It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Book, Writing, Thinking

• 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

• (on A History of Western Philosophy) I was sometimes accused by reviewers of writing not a true history but a biased account of the events that I arbitrarily chose to write of. But to my mind, a man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if, indeed, such man exists.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Writing, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.465, Routledge

• To write tragedy, a man must feel tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he lives. Not only with his mind, but with his blood and sinews.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Men, Blood

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.23, Lulu Press, Inc

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