Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 17

• The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Intellectual, Vices

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.62, Routledge

  10 Copy quote

• Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.

  Bertrand Russell

  Order, Unity, Invention

  21 Copy quote

• Christ . . . said that a man who had looked after a woman lustfully had sinned as much as the man who had seduced her. How absurd!

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Christ, He Man

  5 Copy quote

• There are certain things that our age needs. It needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse to creativeness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hope, Creativity, Age

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.520, Psychology Press

  4 Copy quote

• The road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Hard Work, Prosperity

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.5, Lulu Press, Inc

  4 Copy quote

• When all experts agree, you need to watch out.

  Bertrand Russell

  Experts, Watches, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spiritual, Philosophy, Philosophical

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth”, p.15, Routledge

  48 Copy quote

• It is a curious and painful fact that almost all the completely futile treatments that have been believed in during the long history of medical folly have been such as caused acute suffering to the patient. When anesthetics were discovered, pious people considered them an attempt to evade the will of God. It was pointed out, however, that when God extracted Adam's rib He put him into a deep sleep. This proved that anesthetics are all right for men; women, however, ought to suffer, because of the curse of Eve.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pain, Sleep, Science

  Bertrand Russell (1972). “Atheism: collected essays, 1943-1949”, Arno Pr

  5 Copy quote

• I am firm; YOU are obstinate; HE is a pig-headed fool.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Pigs, Fool

  12 Copy quote

• There may be no good reasons for very many opinions that are held with passion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, May, Opinion

  4 Copy quote

• This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religion, Earth, Return

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.459, Psychology Press

  4 Copy quote

• All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Science, Ideas

  Bertrand Russell (2001). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.45, Psychology Press

  12 Copy quote

• Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

  Bertrand Russell

  Courage, Men, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.70, Routledge

  13 Copy quote

• If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.

  Bertrand Russell

  Magic, Firsts, Friendship Love

  Bertrand Russell (1975). “The conquest of happiness”

  8 Copy quote

• What science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mankind, Humankind, Knows

  "Religion and Science". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. IX: Science of Ethics, 1935.

  4 Copy quote

• True happiness for human beings is possible only to those who develop their godlike potentialities to the utmost.

  Bertrand Russell

  True Happiness, Godlike, Humans

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.238, Routledge

  15 Copy quote

• There is no greater reason for children to honour parents than for parents to honour children except, that while the children are young, the parents are stronger than children.

  Bertrand Russell

  Anniversary, Children, Parent

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.11, Routledge

  8 Copy quote

• When I say that children should be told about sex, I do not mean that they should be told only the bare physiological facts; they should be told whatever they wish to know. There should be no attempt to represent adults as more virtuous than they are, or sex as occurring only in marriage. There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them, and feel justified in lying to them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sex, Children, Lying

  Bertrand Russell (1987). “Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage”

  4 Copy quote

• War can only be abolished by the establishment of a world government.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, World Government, Establishment

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.86, Routledge

  5 Copy quote

• The more you complain the longer God lets you live

  Bertrand Russell

  Complaining, Serious, Funny Bumper Sticker

  7 Copy quote

• What was exciting in the Victorian Age, would leave a man of franker epoch quite unmoved. The more prudes restrict the permissible degree of sexual appeal, the less is required to make such an appeal effective.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Age, Prudes

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.75, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Descartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Father, Philosophy

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.45, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire those powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils. There is no hope for the world unless power can be tamed, and brought into the service, not of this or that group of fanatical tyrants, but of the whole human race, white and yellow and black, fascist and communist and democrat; for science has made it inevitable that all must live or all must die.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Yellow, White

  "Power: A New Social Analysis". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers, 1938.

  8 Copy quote

• Choose your parents wisely.

  Bertrand Russell

  Parent

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell Volume 29: Détente or Destruction, 1955-57”, p.365, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.

  Bertrand Russell

  Views, Evil, Achievement

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.176, Psychology Press

  9 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