Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 42

• The atomists , unlike Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , sought to explain the world without introducing the notion of purpose or final cause.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Finals, Purpose

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.64, Routledge

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• Education, and the life of the mind generally, is a matter in which individual initiative is the chief thing needed; the function of the state should begin and end with insistence on some kind of education, and, if possible, a kind which promotes mental individualism, not a kind which happens to conform to the prejudices of government officials.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, Mind, Prejudice

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel (1995). “Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18”, p.261, Psychology Press

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• My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, Race, Views

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.50, Lulu Press, Inc

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• I feel as if one would only discover on one's death bed what one ought to have lived for

  Bertrand Russell

  Bed, Feels, Ought

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.232, Routledge

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• People are said to believe in God, or to disbelieve in Adam and Eve. But in such cases what is believed or disbelieved is that there is an entity answering a certain description. This, which can be believed or disbelieved is quite different from the actual entity (if any) which does answer the description. Thus the matter of belief is, in all cases, different in kind from the matter of sensation or presentation, and error is in no way analogous to hallucination. A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Errors, People

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Charles Marsh (1988). “Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950”, p.149, Psychology Press

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• Cynicism such as one finds very frequently among the most highly educated young men and women of the West, results from the combination of comfort and powerlessness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Comfort, West

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.85, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.

  Bertrand Russell

  Successful, Envy, Millionaire

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.51, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Civilized life has altogether grown too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide a harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hunting, Outlets, Impulse

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.452, Routledge

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• Dora and I are now married, but just as happy as we were before.

  Bertrand Russell

  Married

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.403, Routledge

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• Another merit of home is that it preserves the diversity between individuals. If we were all alike, it might be convenient for the bureaucrat and the statistician, but it would be very dull, and would lead to a very unprogressive society.

  Bertrand Russell

  Home, Diversity, Would Be

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.46, Routledge

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• In spite of Death, the mark and seal of the parental control, Man is yet free, during his brief years, to examine, to criticise, to know, and in imagination to create. To him alone, in the world with which he is acquainted, this freedom belongs; and in this lies his superiority to the resistless forces that control his outward life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Men, Years

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.75, Bertrand Russell

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• ... the word "theory" ... was originally an Orphic word, which Cornford interprets as "passionate sympathetic contemplation" ... For Pythagoras, the "passionate sympathetic contemplation" was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge ... To those who have reluctantly learnt a little mathematics in school this may seem strange; but to those who have experienced the intoxicating delight of sudden understanding that mathematics gives, from time to time, to those who love it, the Pythagorean view will seem completely natural.

  Bertrand Russell

  School, Views, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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• It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pursuit, Mankind, Delusion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.38, Routledge

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• Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Matter, Merit, Existence

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.14, Bertrand Russell

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• America remained a land of promise for lovers of freedom. Even Byron, at a moment when he was disgusted with Napoleon for not committing suicide, wrote an eloquent stanza in praise of Washington.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suicide, Land, America

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.11, Routledge

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• The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.

  Bertrand Russell

  Responsibility, Government, Political

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

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• To the young I should offer two maxims: Don't accept superficial solutions of difficult problems. It is better to do a little good than much harm. I should not offer anything more specific; every young person should decide on his or her own credo.

  Bertrand Russell

  Two, Littles, Youth

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• We shall say that we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference of any knowledge of truths.

  Bertrand Russell

  Language, Inference, Process

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.60, Bertrand Russell

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• In astronomy, the law of gravitation is plainly better worth knowing than the position of a particular planet on a particular night, or even on every night throughout a year. There are in the law a splendour and simplicity and sense of mastery which illuminate a mass of otherwise uninteresting details. But in history the matter is far otherwise. Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mean, Science, Night

  "On History". The Independent Review 3, pp. 207-215, users.drew.edu. July 1904.

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• Whatever we know without inference is mental.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Inference, Knows

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value”, p.240, Routledge

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• Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. … Aristotle, so far as I know, was the first man to proclaim explicitly that man is a rational animal. His reason for this view was … that some people can do sums. … It is in virtue of the intellect that man is a rational animal. The intellect is shown in various ways, but most emphatically by mastery of arithmetic. The Greek system of numerals was very bad, so that the multiplication table was quite difficult, and complicated calculations could only be made by very clever people.

  Bertrand Russell

  Clever, Animal, Men

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• My doctor said to me afterwards, 'When you were ill you behaved like a true philosopher. Every time you came to yourself you made a joke.' I never had a compliment that pleased me more.

  Bertrand Russell

  Doctors, Philosopher, Compliment

  Bertrand Russell (1967). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1914-1944: 1914/1944”

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• Skilled work, of no matter what kind, is only done well by those who take a certain pleasure in it, quite apart from its utility, either to themselves in earning a living, or to the world through its outcome.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Done, World

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• Morally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treachery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Use, Professional Competence, Philosopher

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.835, Simon and Schuster

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• European travellers find the Japanese a smiling race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Race, Traveller

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.88, Routledge

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