Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 35

• Americans need rest, but do not know it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Needs, Knows

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.146, Psychology Press

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• In the first place a philosophical proposition must be general. It must not deal specially with things on the surface of the earth, or within the solar system, or with any other portion of space and time. . . . This brings us to a second characteristic of philosophical propositions, namely that they must be a priori. A philosophical proposition must be such as can neither be proved nor disproved by empirical evidence. . . . Philosophy, if what has been said is correct, becomes indistinguishable from logic as that word has now come to be used.

  Bertrand Russell

  Time, Philosophy, Philosophical

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• I can't tell whether I am living in a dream or a nightmare.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dream, Nightmare, I Can

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• Love is a slippery eel that bites like hell

  Bertrand Russell

  Love Is, Eels, Hell

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• Opinions which justify cruelty are inspired by cruel impulses.

  Bertrand Russell

  Opinion, Inspired, Cruelty

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.144, Routledge

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• Even in the most purely logical realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspiration, Firsts, Logical

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.22, Bertrand Russell

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• Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Boredom, Half

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 4

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• In a logically perfect language, there will be one word and no more for every simple object, and everything that is not simple will be expressed by a combination of words, by a combination derived, of course, from the words for the simple things that enter in, one word for each simple component.

  Bertrand Russell

  Simple, Perfect, Language

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, p.25, Routledge

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• In all the creative work that I have done, what has come first is a problem, a puzzle involving discomfort.

  Bertrand Russell

  Creative, Done, Firsts

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• Education ought to foster the wish for truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Wish, Politics

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.406, Psychology Press

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• The Mormons had a divine revelation in favour of polygamy, but under pressure from the United States Government they discovered that the revelation was not binding.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, United States, Divine Revelation

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.51, Routledge

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• Modern life cannot be constructed on . . . physically strenuous principles. A great deal of work is sedentary, and most manual work exercises only a few specialized muscles.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Principles, Modern Life

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• Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

  Bertrand Russell

  Yield, Mutation, Materialism

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.69, Psychology Press

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• It was the duty of wives to submit to husbands, not of husbands to submit to wives. . . men have stronger muscles than women.

  Bertrand Russell

  Husband, Men, Wife

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.22, Routledge

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• The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Wisdom, Civilization

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.10, Lulu Press, Inc

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• For some reason which I have failed to understand, many people like the system [scientific totalitarianism] when it is Russian but disliked the very same system when it was German. I am compelled to think that this is due to the power of labels; these people like whatever is labelled ‘Left’ without examining whether the label has any justification.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, People, Labels

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.40, Routledge

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• It is one of the defects of modern higher education that it has become too much a training in the acquisition of certain kinds of skill, and too little an enlargement of the mind and heart by an impartial survey of the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Heart, Skills, Training

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.131, Lulu Press, Inc

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• What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it's easy to have glory without power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Vanity, Needs, Satisfaction

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

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• Psychology often becomes the disease of which it should be the cure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Psychology, Disease, Should

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• Ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Gun, Metaphysical, Ironclads

  Bertrand Russell (1994). “Philosophical Essays”, p.109, Psychology Press

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• The essence of good manners consists in making it clear that one has no wish to hurt. When it is clearly necessary to hurt, it must be done in such a way as to make it evident that the necessity is felt to be regrettable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hurt, Essence, Good Man

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Mortals and Others, Volume II: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.160, Routledge

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• I am looking forward very much to getting back to Cambridge, and being able to say what I think and not to mean what I say: two things which at home are impossible. Cambridge is one of the few places where one can talk unlimited nonsense and generalities without anyone pulling one up or confronting one with them when one says just the opposite the next day.

  Bertrand Russell

  Home, Mean, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.25, Psychology Press

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• It seems clear to me that marriage ought to be constituted by children, and relations not involving children ought to be ignored by the law and treated as indifferent by public opinion. It is only through children that relations cease to be a purely private matter.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Law, Public Opinion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.270, Routledge

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• The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities.

  Bertrand Russell

  Construction, Logical, Entity

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.234, Bertrand Russell

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• To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.

  Bertrand Russell

  Shoes, Choices, Pairs

  "Weighing the Odds: A Course in Probability and Statistics". Book by David Williams, p. 498, 2001.

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