Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 38

• So far I have been speaking of theoretical science, which is an attempt to understand the world. Practical science, which is an attempt to change the world, has been important from the first, and has continually increased in importance, until it has almost ousted theoretical science from men's thoughts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Important, World

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.492, Simon and Schuster

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• There are still many people in America who regard depressions as acts of God. I think Keynes proved that the responsibility for these occurrences does not rest with Providence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Responsibility, Thinking, America

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.69, Routledge

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• When white men first effect contact with some unspoilt race of savages, they offer them all kinds of benefits, from the light of the gospel to pumpkin pie. These, however, much as we may regret it, most savages receive with indifference. What they really value among the gifts that we bring to them is intoxicating liquor which enables them, for the first time in their lives, to have the illusion for a few brief moments that it is better to be alive than dead.

  Bertrand Russell

  Regret, Men, Light

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.165, Routledge

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• no one ever gossips about the virtues of others

  Bertrand Russell

  Gossip, Virtue

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• By self-interest, Man has become gregarious, but in instinct he has remained to a great extent solitary; hence the need of religion and morality to reinforce self-interest.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Self, Needs

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.681, Simon and Schuster

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• I have throughout been curious about how much we can be said to know and with what degree of certainty or doubtfulness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Curiosity, Degrees, Curious

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• Heretical views arise when the truth is uncertain, and it is only when the truth is uncertain that censorship is invoked.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Views, Speech

  Bertrand Russell (1972). “Atheism: collected essays, 1943-1949”, Arno Pr

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• [The church] is in its major part an opponent still of progress and improvement in all the ways that diminish suffering in the world, because it has chosen to label as morality a certain narrow set of rules of conduct which have nothing to do with human happiness; and when you say that this or that ought to be done because it would make for human happiness, they think that has nothing to do with the matter at all. "What has human happiness to do with morals? The object of morals is not to make people happy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, People, Suffering

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.18, Lulu Press, Inc

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• When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.

  Bertrand Russell

  Party, Thinking, Political

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.22, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Bacon not only despised the syllogism, but undervalued mathematics, presumably as insufficiently experimental. He was virulently hostile to Aristotle , but he thought very highly of Democritus , Although he did not deny that the course of nature exemplifies a Divine purpose, he objected to any admixture of teleological explanation in the actual investigation of phenomena; everything, he held, should be explained as following necessarily from efficient causes .

  Bertrand Russell

  Purpose, Causes, Mathematics

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.499, Routledge

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• Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don't know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spring, Long, Great Love

  Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.46, Psychology Press

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• I believe that Communism is necessary to the world, and I believe that the heroism of Russia has fired men's hopes in a way which was essential to the realization of Communism in the future. Regarded as a splendid attempt, without which ultimate success would have been very improbable, Bolshevism deserves the gratitude and admiration of all the progressive part of mankind.

  Bertrand Russell

  Gratitude, Believe, Men

  Bertrand Russell (1972). “Bolshevism: practice and theory”, Ayer Co Pub

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• I must confess that I am deeply troubled. I fear that human beings are intent upon acting out a vast deathwish and that it lies with us now to make every effort to promote resistance to the insanity and brutality of policies which encompass the extermination of hundreds of millions of human beings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Effort, Insanity

  Bertrand Russell (1967). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”

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• Life seems to me essentially passion, conflict, rage. It is only intellect that keeps me sane; perhaps this makes me overvalue intellect against feeling.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, Feelings, Conflict

  Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1912. "The life of Bertrand Russell". Book by Ronald W. Clark, p. 174, 1975.

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• it [is] possible to suppose that, if Russia is allowed to have peace, an amazing industrial development may take place, making Russia a rival of the United States.

  Bertrand Russell

  Russia, United States, Development

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.190, Psychology Press

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• One of the commonest things to do with savings is to lend them to some Government. In view of the fact that the bulk of the public expenditure of most civilized Governments consists in payment for past wars or preparation for future wars, the man who lends his money to a Government is in the same position as the bad men in Shakespeare who hire murderers. The net result of the man's economical habits is to increase the armed forces of the State to which he lends his savings. Obviously it would be better if he spent the money, even if he spent it in drink or gambling.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Men, Past

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.5, Lulu Press, Inc

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• There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Shall we instead choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal as a human being to human beings; remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, Lying, Humanity

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.716, Routledge

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• The wise man will be as happy as circumstances permit, and if he finds the contemplation of the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else instead.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Men, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.12, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Altogether it will be found that a quiet life is characteristic of great men, and that their pleasures have not been of the sort that would look exciting to the outward eye.

  Bertrand Russell

  Eye, Men, Looks

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.35, Lulu Press, Inc

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• All the time that he can spare from the adornment of his person, he devotes to the neglect of his duties.

  Bertrand Russell

  Time, Neglect, Duty

  "Some Cambridge Dons of the Nineties" by Bertrand Russell, 1956.

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• It appeared to me obvious that the happiness of mankind should be the aim of all action, and I discovered to my surprise that there were those who thought otherwise.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Action, Surprise

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.39, Routledge

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• It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather that the hope of creatingfuture dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Hope, Teaching

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• Modern American politicians have the same cowardice about denying an equally bloodthirsty even sillier god, Jehovah.
  None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist... I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Atheist, Thinking

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• Our instinctive emotions are those that we have inherited from a much more dangerous world, and contain, therefore, a larger portion of fear than they should.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dangerous World, Worry, Emotion

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• When it was first proposed to establish laboratories at Cambridge, Todhunter, the mathematician, objected that it was unnecessary for students to see experiments performed, since the results could be vouched for by their teachers, all of them of the highest character, and many of them clergymen of the Church of England.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Character, Science

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.620, Psychology Press

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