Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 13

• Thinking you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone

  Bertrand Russell

  Mistake, Thinking, Facts

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.66, Routledge

  8 Copy quote

• Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, Law

  8 Copy quote

• The legacy of Greece to Western philosophy is Western philosophy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Legacy, Western

  6 Copy quote

• The man who pursues happiness wisely will aim at the possession of a number of subsidiary interests in addition to those central ones upon which his life is built.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Numbers, Life Is

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.134, Lulu Press, Inc

  6 Copy quote

• In a just world, there would be no possibility of 'charity'.

  Bertrand Russell

  Would Be, World, Charity

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Mortals and Others, Volume I: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.133, Routledge

  14 Copy quote

• From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished. What was lost to christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary.

  Bertrand Russell

  Islamic, Civilization, India

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.325, Routledge

  20 Copy quote

• Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Class, Community

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

  9 Copy quote

• A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Lying, Real

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.87, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

• Machines deprive us of two things which are certainly important ingredients of human happiness, namely, spontaneity and variety.

  Bertrand Russell

  Two, Important, Machines

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.67, Psychology Press

  17 Copy quote

• I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young, and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Love Life, Ego

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “What I Believe”, p.22, Routledge

  12 Copy quote

• I don't like the spirit of socialism - I think freedom is the basis of everything.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Spirit, Socialism

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.286, Routledge

  12 Copy quote

• Unhappy business men, I am convinced, would increase their happiness more by walking six miles every day than by any conceivable change of philosophy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Men, Unhappy

  4 Copy quote

• People are zealous for a cause when they are not quite positive that it is true.

  Bertrand Russell

  Positive Thinking, People, Zealous

  12 Copy quote

• [There has been] every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Names, People, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.17, Lulu Press, Inc

  4 Copy quote

• Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Sleep, Math

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 1

  9 Copy quote

• If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.

  Bertrand Russell

  Change, Happiness, Success

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.90, Lulu Press, Inc

  9 Copy quote

• Artists are on the average less happy than men of science.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Artist, Average

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.85, Lulu Press, Inc

  4 Copy quote

• There is something feeble, and a little contemptible, about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought, and he therefore cannot carry his own reflection to any logical conclusion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Men, Comforting

  "Human Society in Ethics and Politics".

  17 Copy quote

• All religions are both harmful and untrue.

  Bertrand Russell

  Untrue

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.25, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• Men have physical needs, and they have emotions. While physical needs are unsatisfied, they take first place; but when they are satisfied, emotions unconnected with them become important in deciding whether a man is to be happy or unhappy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Important, Unhappy

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.65, Psychology Press

  12 Copy quote

• The examination system, and the fact that instruction is treated mainly as a training for a livelihood, leads the young to regard knowledge from a purely utilitarian point of view as the road to money, not as the gateway to wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Science, Views

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.409, Psychology Press

  7 Copy quote

• We must be sceptical even of our scepticism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Scepticism

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.120, Psychology Press

  5 Copy quote

• The social psychologist of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, School, Army

  18 Copy quote

• The sentiments of an adult are compounded of a kernel of instinct surrounded by a vast husk of education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Adults, Opinion, Instinct

  4 Copy quote

• I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race—I am ashamed to belong to such a species.

  Bertrand Russell

  Father, Hate, Pride

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.289, Routledge

  11 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Gottlob Frege

Alfred North Whitehead

David Hume

Russell Crowe

G. H. Hardy

Immanuel Kant

Jean-Paul Sartre