Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 5

• There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, Men, Littles

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.219, Routledge

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• Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.

  Bertrand Russell

  Marriage, Sex, Feminist

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.94, Routledge

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• When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Men, Safe

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.42, Routledge

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• The more things a man is interested in, the more opportunities of happiness he has and the less he is at the mercy of fate, since if he loses one thing he can fall back upon another.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fall, Fate, Opportunity

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.59, W. W. Norton & Company

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• I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: "The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair." In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Baby, Bullying, Anger

  "Education and the Social Order". Book by Bertrand Russell, p. 31, 1932.

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• That the world is in a bad shape is undeniable, but there is not the faintest reason in history to suppose that Christianity offers a way out.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, World, Shapes

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• A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.

  Bertrand Russell

  Worry, Anxiety, Matter

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.40, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The chicken noticed that the farmer came every day to feed it. It predicted that the farmer would continue to bring food every day. Inductivists think that the chicken had "extrapolated" its observations into a theory, and that each feeding time added justification to that theory. Then one day the farmer came and wrung the chicken's neck. This inductively justifies the conclusion that induction cannot justify any conclusion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, One Day, Necks

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• If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation do you prefer the grain to the vote?

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Democracy, Bags

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.82, Routledge

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• Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Liberty, Principles

  Bertrand Russell (1960). “Sceptical Essays”

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• Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Argument, Grasshoppers

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• The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich.

  Bertrand Russell

  Should Have, Ideas, Leisure

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.9, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

  Bertrand Russell

  4th Of July, Patriotic, Government

  "Sceptical Essays". Ch. 13: Freedom in Society. Book by Bertrand Russell, 1928.

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• When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.

  Bertrand Russell

  Rocks, Looks, Effects

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• No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

  Bertrand Russell

  Respect, Keeping Secrets, People

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.50, Routledge

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• Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Depressing, Hate

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• Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Freedom, Thinking, Government

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.443, Psychology Press

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• A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Freedom, Believe

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• The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Change, Teamwork, Collaboration

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.12, Psychology Press

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• If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be enough for everybody, and no unemployment — assuming a certain very moderate amount of sensible organization. This idea shocks the well-to-do, because they are convinced that the poor would not know how to use so much leisure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Son, Men

  "In praise of idleness: and other essays".

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• Worry is a form of fear, and all forms of fear produce fatigue. A man who has learned not to feel fear will find the fatigue of daily life enormously diminished.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Men, Worry

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.31, W. W. Norton & Company

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• In the visible world, the Milky Way is a tiny fragment; within this fragment, the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties, crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded.

  Bertrand Russell

  Years, Water, Elements

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.19, Psychology Press

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• Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Character, Government

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.45, Routledge

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• A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Music, Happy Life

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• Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

  Bertrand Russell

  Power, Men, Religion

  The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine, March 6, 1938.

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