Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 10

• The very best proof that something can be done is that someone has already done it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Done, Proof

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• There are infinite possibilities of error, and more cranks take up fashionable untruths than unfashionable truths.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Science, Errors

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• One of the main causes of trouble in the world is dogmatic and fanatical belief in some doctrine for which there is no adequate evidence

  Bertrand Russell

  Doctrine, World, Adequate

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.133, Psychology Press

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• I feel life is so small unless it has windows into other worlds.

  Bertrand Russell

  Other Worlds, Life Is, Window

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The private years, 1884-1914”, Allen Lane

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• I don't care for the applause one gets by saying what others are thinking; I want actually to change people's thoughts. Power over people's minds is the main personal desire of my life; and this sort of power is not acquired by saying popular things.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, People, Mind

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.285, Routledge

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• dont let the old break you; let the love make you

  Bertrand Russell

  Break

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• What we cannot think we cannot think, therefore we also cannot say what we cannot think.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Bernd Frohmann (1988). “Essays on language, mind, and matter, 1919-26”, Allen & Unwin Australia

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• What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Science, Opposites

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

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• Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

  Bertrand Russell

  Differences, Finding Yourself, Examination

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.99, Routledge

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• Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Believe, Animal

  Unpopular Essays (1950) "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

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• It is not my prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.

  Bertrand Russell

  Prayer, Humility, Law

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

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• Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason. Then I think that the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Believe, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.187, Psychology Press

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• The Ten Commandments should be headed like an examination paper: No more than six to be attempted.

  Bertrand Russell

  Paper, Examination, Six

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• There is no difference between someone who eats too little and sees Heaven and someone who drinks too much and sees snakes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Snakes, Differences, Alcohol

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• In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suffering, Wicked, Injustice

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.814, Routledge

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• ...the nonexistence of God makes more difference to some of us than to others. To me, it means that there is no absolute morality, that moralities are sets of social conventions devised by humans to satisfy their needs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mean, Differences, Needs

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• The objections to religion are of two sorts - intellectual and moral. The intellectual objection is that there is no reason to suppose any religion true; the moral objection is that religious precepts date from a time when men were more cruel than they are and therefore tend to perpetuate inhumanities which the moral conscience of the age would otherwise outgrow.

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, Religious, Men

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

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• Who ever heard a theologian preface his creed, or a politician conclude his speech with an estimate of the probable error of his opinion?

  Bertrand Russell

  Errors, Speech, Opinion

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• Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Life, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.80, Routledge

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• Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Happiness, Procrastination

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

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• Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Eugenics, People

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

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• It may seem to your conceited to suppose that you can do anything important toward improving the lot of mankind. But this is a fallacy. You must believe that you can help bring about a better world. A good society is produced only by good individuals, just as truly as a majority in a presidential election is produced by the votes of single electors. Everybody can do something toward creating in his own environment kindly feelings rather than anger, reasonableness rather than hysteria, happiness rather than misery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Conceited, Hysteria

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.642, Psychology Press

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• I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.

  Bertrand Russell

  Beautiful, Hate, Believe

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.125, Routledge

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• I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Thinking, Adequate

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.440, Psychology Press

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• Are you never afraid of God's judgement in denying him? Most certainly not. I also deny Zeus and Jupiter and Odin and Brahma, but this causes me no qualms. I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Thinking, Odin

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