Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 3

• There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Useless, Pleasure

  "In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 2: 'Useless' Knowledge, 1935.

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• If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Happy, Hippie

  Attributed to Bertrand Russell, Think, Vol. 27 (p. 32), 1961.

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• If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education.'

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Support, Intelligence

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.59, Routledge

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• Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Strong, Fear

  Autobiography prologue (1967)

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• Organized people are just too lazy to look for things

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Lazy, Looks

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• Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.

  Bertrand Russell

  Humility, Men, People

  Bertrand Russell (1996). “Unpopular Essays”, p.176, Psychology Press

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• Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

  Bertrand Russell

  Confidence, Being Yourself, Fear

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.554, Routledge

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• Science does not aim at establishing immutable truths and eternal dogmas; its aim is to approach the truth by successive approximations, without claiming that at any stage final and complete accuracy has been achieved.

  Bertrand Russell

  Doe, Finals, Dogma

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “The ABC of relativity”, Signet

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• Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.

  Bertrand Russell

  Freedom, Humorous, Men

  33 Copy quote

• Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Men, Religion

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.88, Psychology Press

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• Why repeat the old errors, if there are so many new errors to commit?

  Bertrand Russell

  Errors, Commit, Repeats

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• Fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves.

  Bertrand Russell

  Foolish Man, Wisest Man, Thought Provoking

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• We may define "faith" as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of "faith." We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups, substitute different emotions.

  Bertrand Russell

  Two, Religion, Wish

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

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• Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?

  Bertrand Russell

  Hate, Successful, Hatred

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

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• People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Competition, Wish

  Bertrand Russell (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970”, p.215, Psychology Press

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• Belief systems provide a programme which relieves the necessity of thought.

  Bertrand Russell

  Belief, Belief Systems, Programmes

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• Admit at least one painful truth to yourself every day. Teach yourself to feel that life would still be worth living even if you were not immeasurably superior to all your friends. Exercises of this sort, prolonged through several years, will at last enable you to admit facts without flinching, and will, in so doing, free you from the empire of fear over a very large field.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Years, Empires

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.173, Routledge

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• I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology... Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions are generated.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, World Government, Class

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• The discipline in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by society or authority.

  Bertrand Russell

  Discipline, Desire, Needs

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

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• I once saw a photograph of a large herd of wild elephants in Central Africa Seeing an airplane for the first time, and all in a state of wild collective terror... As, however, there were no journalists among them, the terror died down when the airplane was out of sight.

  Bertrand Russell

  Funny, Airplane, Elephants

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• Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

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• Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Essentials, Doubt And Certainty

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.21, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Life is just one cup of coffee after another, and don't look for anything else.

  Bertrand Russell

  Coffee, Cups, Looks

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• I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Favors, Communism, Exploitation

  "Unarmed Victory". Book by Bertrand Russell, p. 14, 1963.

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• Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

  Bertrand Russell

  Funny, Life, Competition

  Bertrand Russell (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970”, p.215, Psychology Press

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