Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 25

• My own belief is that in most ages and in most places obscure psychological forces led men to adopt systems involving quite unnecessary cruelty, and that this is still the case among the most civilized races at the present day.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Race, Age

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.11, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• The resistance to a new idea increases by the square of its importance.

  Bertrand Russell

  Squares, Ideas, Resistance

  4 Copy quote

• I did not know I loved you until I heard myself telling so, for one instance I thought, "Good God, what have I said?" and then I knew it was true.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Good God, Said

  4 Copy quote

• The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Night, Men

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

  4 Copy quote

• On the one hand, philosophy is to keep us thinking about things that we may come to know, and on the other hand to keep us modestly aware of how much that seems like knowledge isn't knowledge

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Thinking, Hands

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

  4 Copy quote

• The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Believe, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Mortals and Others, Volume II: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.28, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Men, Progress

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.171, Psychology Press

  8 Copy quote

• One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his or her work important.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Holiday, Men

  'The Conquest of Happiness' (1930) ch. 5

  6 Copy quote

• Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely.

  Bertrand Russell

  Power, Vanity, Omnipotence

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.449, Routledge

  6 Copy quote

• Although it is a gloomy view to suppose that life will die out, sometimes when I contemplate the things that people do with their lives I think it is almost a consolation

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Views, People

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

  5 Copy quote

• To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Democracy, Citizens, Importance

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.660, Routledge

  16 Copy quote

• If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.

  Bertrand Russell

  Giving, Able, Infinity

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays”, p.77, Booklassic

  8 Copy quote

• It is for this reason that rationality is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species...even more, in those less fortunate times in which it is despised and rejected as the vain dream of men who lack the virility to kill where they cannot agree.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dream, Men, Reason

  7 Copy quote

• I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Addiction, Progress

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.28, Psychology Press

  8 Copy quote

• It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. ...It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Believe, Adventure

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.95, Lulu Press, Inc

  6 Copy quote

• Ordinary language is totally unsuited for expressing what physics really asserts, since the words of everyday life are not sufficiently abstract. Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Mean, Math

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.626, Psychology Press

  6 Copy quote

• I read Zuleika Dobson with pleasure. It represents the Oxford that the two World Wars have destroyed with a charm that is not likely to be reproduced anywhere in the world for the next thousand years.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Years, Oxford

  6 Copy quote

• I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of that joy. ... I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Heaven, Vision

  "Bertrand Russell's Best".

  7 Copy quote

• Law in origin was merely a codification of the power of dominant groups, and did not aim at anything that to a modern man would appear to be justice

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Law, Justice

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.98, Routledge

  9 Copy quote

• I am compelled to fear that science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups rather than to make men happy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Men, Groups

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Icarus; or, the Future of Science”, p.3, Lulu Press, Inc

  7 Copy quote

• Democracy has at least one merit, namely that a Member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the more stupid they were to elect him.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Democracies Have, Democracy

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.66, Routledge

  6 Copy quote

• All the conditions of happiness are realized in the life of the man of science.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Science, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.55, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• It is false to suggest that men must turn away from his desires in the interest of a higher duty. Men only responds to duty if he desires to do so. To understand men, you must understand their desires and the relative strength of those desires.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Desire, Duty

  4 Copy quote

• Ever since men became capable of free speculation, their actions, in innumerable important respects, have depended upon their theories as to the world and human life, as to what is good and what is evil. This is true in the present day as at any former time. To understand an age or a nation, we must understand its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy we must ourselves be in some degree philosophers. There is here a reciprocal causation: the circumstances of men s lives do much to determine their philosophy, but, conversely, their philosophy does much to determine their circumstances.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Men, Evil

  "History of Western Philosophy".

  4 Copy quote

• I have come to realize that an early symptom of approaching mental illness is the belief that one's work is terribly important. If you consider your work very important you should take a day off.

  Bertrand Russell

  Success, Teaching, Important

  5 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