Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 24

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Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; no fire, no heroism, no intensity of though and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.

Bertrand Russell

Men, Fire, Feelings

Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.107, Simon and Schuster

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You could take up the line that some of the gnostics took up - a line which I often thought was a very plausible one - that as a matter of fact this world that we know was made by the devil at a moment when God was not looking. There is a good deal to be said for that, and I am not concerned to refute it.

Bertrand Russell

Devil, Matter, Facts

Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.119, Routledge

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[Man] ... his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labour of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.

Bertrand Russell

Inspiration, Science, Men

Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays”, p.46, Booklassic

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...I am afraid that education is conceived more in terms of indoctrination by most school officials than in terms of enlightenment. My own belief is that education must be subversive if it is to be meaningful. By this I mean that it must challenge all the things we take for granted, examine all accepted assumptions, tamper with every sacred cow, and instill a desire to question and doubt. Without this the mere instruction to memorise data is empty. The attempt to enforce conventional mediocrity on the young is criminal.

Bertrand Russell

Meaningful, School, Data

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Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.

Bertrand Russell

Learning, Language, Programming

Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.106, Routledge

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The human heart as modern civilization has made it is more prone to hatred than to friendship. And it is prone to hatred because it is dissatisfied.

Bertrand Russell

Heart, Civilization, Hatred

Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.53, Lulu Press, Inc

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Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts.

Bertrand Russell

Christian, Hands, Two

Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

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(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

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I must, before I die, find some way to say the essential thing that is in me, that I have never said yet -- a thing that is not love or hate or pity or scorn, but the very breath of life, fierce and coming from far away, bringing into human life the vastness and the fearful passionless force of non-human things.

Bertrand Russell

Hate, Essentials, Vastness

Bertrand Russell (1995). “My Philosophical Development”, p.193, Psychology Press

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Many people when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praiseworthy.

Bertrand Russell

Love, Fall, People

Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.66, W. W. Norton & Company

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Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.

Bertrand Russell

Humility, Math, Science

Bertrand Russell (2009). “An Outline of Philosophy”, p.171, Routledge

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To fear love is to fear life.

Bertrand Russell

Love You, Love Life, Love Is

Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19

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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

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From the height of their disillusionment they look down upon those whom they despise as simple souls. For my part I have no sympathy with this outlook. All disenchantment is to me a malady, which, it is true, certain circumstances may render inevitable, but which none the less, when it occurs, is to be cured as soon as possible, not to be regarded as a higher form of wisdom.

Bertrand Russell

Simple, Soul, May

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To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error.

Bertrand Russell

Silly, Simple, Errors

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

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When you come to look into this argument from design, it is a most astonishing thing that people can believe that this world, with all the things that are in it, with all its defects, should be the best that omnipotence and omniscience has been able to produce in millions of years.

Bertrand Russell

Believe, Years, Omnipotence

Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.185, Psychology Press

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Mathematics rightly viewed possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.

Bertrand Russell

Math, Western Philosophy, Mathematics

"The Study of Mathematics" (1902)

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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

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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”

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The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple; I should say: "Love is wise - Hatred is foolish." In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other.

Bertrand Russell

Wise, Love Is, Hatred

YouTube Channel "RationalOutlet"/"Bertrand Russell - The Wisest Man", www.youtube.com. May 28, 2010.

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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”

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The difficulty is old, but none the less real. An omnipotent being who created a world containing evil not due to sin must Himself be at least partially evil.

Bertrand Russell

God, Real, Evil

Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.33, Routledge

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Among human beings, the subjection of women is much more complete at a certain level of civilization than it is among savages. And the subjection is always reinforced by morality.

Bertrand Russell

Civilization, Savages, Levels

Bertrand Russell, Charles R. Pigden (1999). “Russell on Ethics: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.208, Psychology Press

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You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so called age of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with its tortures; there were millions of unfortunate women burnt as witches; and there was every kind of cruelty practised upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

Bertrand Russell

Christian, Believe, Men

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I hold all knowledge that is concerned with things that actually exist - all that is commonly called Science - to be of very slight value compared to the knowledge which, like philosophy and mathematics, is concerned with ideal and eternal objects, and is freed from this miserable world which God has made.

Bertrand Russell

Philosophy, Knowledge, World

Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.149, Routledge

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Born: May 18, 1872
Died: February 2, 1970
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

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