Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 44

• The taboo against nakedness is an obstacle to a decent attitude on the subject of sex.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sex, Attitude, Obstacles

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.71, Routledge

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• Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Doubt, Answers

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.207, Bertrand Russell

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• The practice of inhibiting impulses, which is to a great extent necessary to civilized life, makes mistakes easier, by preventing experience of the actions to which a desire would otherwise lead, and by often causing the inhibited impulses themselves to be unnoticed or quickly forgotten.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mistake, Practice, Desire

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Analysis of Mind: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.40, 谷月社

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• The evolution of our spirit is blazed on the dark background of eternity by our individual wakes. Every person can, if he/she wishes, leave a more or less brilliant wake behind them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dark, Wish, Spirit

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• Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Conformity, Regions

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• Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.

  Bertrand Russell

  Desire, Submission, Righteous Indignation

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.110, Simon and Schuster

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• Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mistake, Women, Science

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.66, Routledge

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• Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophical, Analysis, Problem

  Bertrand Russell (2017). “Our Knowledge of the External World”, p.20, Jovian Press

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• Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Triumph, World

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.484, Routledge

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• Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.

  Bertrand Russell

  Travel, Adventure, Knowing

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.124, Routledge

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• No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

  Bertrand Russell

  Beauty, Beautiful, Real

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• Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Beautiful, Power, Machines

  Sceptical Essays (1928) "Machines and Emotions"

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• In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.

  Bertrand Russell

  Realist, Results, Idealism

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Theory of Knowledge: The 1913 Manuscript”, p.6, Routledge

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• Dogmatism is the greatest of mental obstacles to human happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Obstacles, Dogmatism, Humans

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• The significance of a fact is relative to [the general body of scientific] knowledge. To say that a fact is significant in science, is to say that it helps to establish or refute some general law; for science, though it starts from observation of the particular, is not concerned essentially with the particular, but with the general. A fact, in science, is not a mere fact, but an instance. In this the scientist differs from the artist, who, if he deigns to notice facts at all, is likely to notice them in all their particularity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Art, Knowledge, Science

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• The fact that all Mathematics is Symbolic Logic is one of the greatest discoveries of our age; and when this fact has been established, the remainder of the principles of mathematics consists of the analysis of Symbolic Logic itself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Discovery, Mathematical Logic, Age

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Principles of Mathematics”, p.5, Routledge

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• Hitler is an outcome of Rousseau.

  Bertrand Russell

  Outcomes

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.551, Routledge

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• With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway about the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stars, Passion, Heart

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

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• The military superiority of Europe to Asia is not an eternal law of nature, as we are tempted to think, and our superiority in civilization is a mere delusion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Military, Thinking, Europe

  Bertrand Russell (2007). “The Problem of China”, p.27, Cosimo, Inc.

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• In our complex world, there cannot be fruitful initiative without government, but unfortunately there can be government without initiative.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, World, Initiative

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Authority and the Individual”, p.47, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The dictum that human nature cannot be changed is one of those tiresome platitudes that conceal from the ignorant the depths of their own ignorance.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ignorance, Ignorant, Depth

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• I think periods of browsing during which no occupation is imposed from without are important in youth because they give time for the formation of these apparently fugitive but really vital impressions.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Giving, Important

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.15, Routledge

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• There was, I think, never any reason to believe in any innate superiority of the male, except his superior muscle.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Men, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.153, Routledge

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• It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things : That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave

  Bertrand Russell

  Alive, Slave, Feds

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.115, Routledge

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