Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 36

• Only six need be attempted.

  Bertrand Russell

  Six, Needs, Humour

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• The essence of education is that it is a change effected in the organism to satisfy the operator.

  Bertrand Russell

  Art, Philosophy, Essence

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• Any philosophy worth taking seriously would have to be built upon a firm foundation of unyielding despair.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Despair, Foundation

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• The fundamental defect of Christian ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts 'sins' and others 'virtue' on grounds that have nothing to do with their social consequences.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Class, Labels

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.73, Routledge

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• Science has made unrestricted national sovereignty incompatible with human survival. The only possibilities are now world government or death.

  Bertrand Russell

  World Government, Survival, Possibility

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• Philosophy bakes no bread

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Bread

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• To discover a system for the avoidance of war is a vital need of our civilisation.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Needs, Civilisation

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.6, Lulu Press, Inc

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• While I am as convinced a Socialist as the most ardent Marxian, I do not regard Socialism as a gospel of proletarian revenge, nor even, primarily, as a means of securing economic justice. I regard it primarily as an adjustment to machine production demanded by considerations of common sense, and calculated to increase the happiness, not only of proletarians, but of all except a tiny minority of the human race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Revenge, Mean, Race

  Bertrand Russell, Kenneth Blackwell (2008). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell”

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• Each act of cruelty is eternally a part of the universe; nothing that happens later can make that act good rather than bad, or can confer perfection on the whole of which it is a part.

  Bertrand Russell

  Perfection, Cruelty, Whole

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.467, Routledge

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• Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle.

  Bertrand Russell

  Struggle, Quality, Needs

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.1, Lulu Press, Inc

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• It would have been very much better for the world if Britain had remained neutral and the Germans had won a quick victory. We should not have had either the Nazis or the Communists if that had happened.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Victory, World

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• It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fate, Form, Idealism

  Marriage and Morals ch. 7 (1929)

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• The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe.

  Bertrand Russell

  Honesty, Pain, Integrity

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• Admiration of the proletariat, like that of dams, power stations, and aeroplanes, is part of the ideology of the machine age.

  Bertrand Russell

  Birthday, Age, Dams

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.62, Routledge

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• A good social system is not to be secured by making people unselfish, but, by making their own vital impulses fit in with other peoples. This is feasible. Those who have produced stoic philosophies have all had enough to eat and drink. I feel I shall find the truth on my deathbed and be surrounded by people too stupid to understand—fussing about medicines instead of searching for wisdom. I hate being all tidy like a book in a library where nobody reads – prison is horribly like that.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hate, Philosophy, Stupid

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• Respectability, regularity, and routine - the whole cast-iron discipline of a modern industrial society - have atrophied the artistic impulse, and imprisoned love so that it can no longer be generous and free and creative, but must be either stuffy or furtive.

  Bertrand Russell

  Iron, Discipline, Creative

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.12, Psychology Press

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• Machines have altered our way of life, but not our instincts. Consequently, there is maladjustment.

  Bertrand Russell

  Machines, Way, Instinct

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.69, Psychology Press

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• Understanding human nature must be the basis of any real improvement in human life. Science has done wonders in mastering the laws of the physical world, but our own nature is much less understood, as yet, than the nature of stars and electrons. When science learns to understand human nature, it will be able to bring a happiness into our lives which machines and the physical sciences have failed to create.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stars, Real, Law

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.70, Psychology Press

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• There is an element of the busybody in our conception of virtue: unless a man makes himself a nuisance to a great many people, we do not think he can be an exceptionally good man.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Thinking, People

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.540, Routledge

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• To speak seriously: the standards of "goodness" which are generally recognized by public opinion are not those which are calculated to make the world a happier place. This is due to a variety of causes, of which the chief is tradition, and the next most powerful is the unjust power of dominant classes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Class, World

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.97, Psychology Press

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• It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Natural, Attributes, Propensity

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.113, Psychology Press

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• We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Depressing, Hate, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

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• Love can only flourish as long as it is free and spontaneous; it tends to be killed by the thought that it is a duty. To say that it is your duty to love so-and-so is the surest way to cause you to hate him or her.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hate, Long, Way

  "Marriage and Morals".

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• Science can teach us, and I think our hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supporters, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make the world a fit place to live.

  Bertrand Russell

  Heart, Thinking, Sky

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• The first effect of emancipation from the Church was not to make men think rationally, but to open their minds to every sort of antique nonsense

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Thinking, Mind

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, Routledge

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