Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 43

• Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then suchand such another proposition is true of that thing.... Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Talking, May

  "Mathematics and Metaphysicians" (1901)

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• The fundamental principle in the analysis of propositions containing descriptions is this: Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.

  Bertrand Russell

  Principles, Analysis, Fundamentals

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.75, Bertrand Russell

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• If the West can claim superiority in anything, it is . . . in science and scientific technique.

  Bertrand Russell

  Technique, West, Claims

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.76, Routledge

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• If we compare Europe with other continents, it is marked out as [another] persecuting continent.

  Bertrand Russell

  Europe, Compare, Continents

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• In detective stories . . . I alternately identify myself with the murderer and the huntsman-detective, but . . . there are those to which this vicarious outlet is too mild.

  Bertrand Russell

  Detectives, Stories, Vicarious

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• [Industrialism's soon diminishing] capacity to supply human needs could be prevented if men exercised any restraint or foresight in their present frenzied exploitation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Needs, Capacity

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• In the ordinary business of life punctuality is . . . necessary.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ordinary, Punctuality

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.25, 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.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspired, Modern, Achieve

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.96, Lulu Press, Inc

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• My own view on religion is . . . It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and . . . to chronicle eclipses . . . These two services I am prepared to acknowledge.

  Bertrand Russell

  Two, Views, Calendars

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• When I was a child . . . Only virtue was prized, virtue at the expense of intellect, health, happiness, and every mundane good.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Virtue, Intellect

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.120, Routledge

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• Plato has dramatic strength ... but is quite unaware of the strength of the argument against his position ... and allows himself to be grossly unfair in arguing against it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Arguing, Argument

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• In spreading his ideas, Plato was willing to employ emotional appeals, state propaganda, and the use of force.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Emotional, Ideas

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• Aristotle's metaphysics, roughly speaking, may be described as Plato diluted by common sense. He is difficult because Plato and common sense do not mix easily.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Common Sense, May

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.162, Simon and Schuster

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• Patriotism which has the quality of intoxication is a danger not only to its native land but to the world, and "My country never wrong" is an even more dangerous maxim than "My country, right or wrong."

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Land, Quality

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• To be out of harmony with one's surroundings is of course a misfortune, but it is not always a misfortune to be avoided at all costs. Where the environment is stupid or prejudiced or cruel, it is a sign of merit to be out of harmony with it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Cost, Merit

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.50, W. W. Norton & Company

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• If life is to be fully human it must serve some end which seems, in some sense, outside human life, some end which is impersonal and above mankind, such as God or truth or beauty. Those who best promote life do not have life for their purpose. They aim rather at what seems like a gradual incarnation, a bringing into our human existence of something eternal, something that appears to imagination to live in a heaven remote from strife and failure and the devouring jaws of Time.

  Bertrand Russell

  Imagination, Heaven, Purpose

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.144, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The triumph of science has been mainly due to its practical utility, and there has been an attempt to divorce this aspect from that of theory, thus making science more and more a technique, and less and less a doctrine as to the nature of the world. The penetration of this point of view to philosophers is very recent.

  Bertrand Russell

  Divorce, Views, Technique

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.493, Simon and Schuster

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• One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Obstacles, Instruction, Form

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.360, Psychology Press

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• When we perceive any object of a familiar kind, much of what appears subjectively to be immediately given is really derived from past experience.

  Bertrand Russell

  Past, Kind, Given

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Analysis of Mind: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.45, 谷月社

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• I used, when I was younger, to take my holidays walking. I would cover 25 miles a day, and when the evening came I had no need of anything to keep me from boredom, since the delight of sitting amply sufficed.

  Bertrand Russell

  Holiday, Boredom, Needs

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Bertrand Russell's best: silhouettes in satire”, Allen & Unwin

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• Meantime, the world in which we exist has other aims. But it will pass away, burnt up in the fire of its own hot passions; and from its ashes will spring a new and younger world, full of fresh hope, woth the light of morning in its eyes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Morning, Spring, Eye

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Roads to Freedom”, p.154, Routledge

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• A man of Seville is shaved by the Barber of Seville if and only if the man does not shave himself. Does the barber shave himself?

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Ifs And, Doe

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• Those whose lives are fruitful to themselves, to their friends, or to the world are inspired by hope and sustained by joy: they see in imagination the things that might be and the way in which they are to be brought into existence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Imagination, Joy, World

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Roads to Freedom”, p.139, Routledge

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• Broadly speaking, Protestants like to be good and have invented theology in order to keep themselves so, whereas Catholics like to be bad and have invented theology in order to keep their neighbors good. Hence, the social character of Catholicism and the individual character of Protestantism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Character, Order, Catholic

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.123, Simon and Schuster

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• Humanistic ethics is based on the principle that only humans themselves can determine the criterion for virtue and not an authority transcending us.

  Bertrand Russell

  Principles, Ethics, Virtue

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