Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 6

• An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Atheist, Practice

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.557, Routledge

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• Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Science, Infancy Is

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• If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wish, Seeing, Ifs

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.97, Routledge

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• Too little liberty brings stagnation, and too much brings chaos.

  Bertrand Russell

  Liberty, Littles, Too Much

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Authority and the Individual”, p.44, Routledge

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• Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

  Bertrand Russell

  God, Punishment, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.257, Psychology Press

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• It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, Religion, Evidence

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.63, Routledge

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• More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Educational, Teaching

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.181, Routledge

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• If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Believe, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.109, Booklassic

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• All forms of fear produce fatigue.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Form, Produce

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.43, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

  Bertrand Russell

  Intelligent, Agreement, Pleasure

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.554, Routledge

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• Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster.

  Bertrand Russell

  Way, Disaster, Increase

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.54, Routledge

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• An educator should think of a child as a gardener thinks of a plant, as something to be made to grow by having the right soil and the right amount of water. If your roses fail to bloom, it does not occur to you to whip them, but you try to find out what has been amiss in your treatment of them. ... The important thing is what the children do, and not what they do not do. And what they do, if it is to have value, must be a spontaneous expression of their own vital energy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Teaching, Thinking

  "The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959".

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• The experience of overcoming fear is extraordinarily delightful.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Overcoming, Overcoming Fear

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “On Education”, p.65, Routledge

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• When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe, but look only and surely at what are the facts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Believe, Wish

  BBC interview on "Face to Face", 1959.

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• Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

  Bertrand Russell

  Drinking, Two, People

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• All human activity is prompted by desire.

  Bertrand Russell

  Desire, Humans, Human Activity

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.160, Routledge

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• Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Emotional, Bitterness, Unhappiness

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.173, Routledge

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• I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Happiness, Gratitude

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• Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Hippie, Patriotic

  Bertrand Russell (1962). “Has Man a Future?”

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• The main thing needed to make men happy is intelligence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Men, Needed

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• It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Money, Freedom

  "Principles of Social Reconstruction". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1917.

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• Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers
  and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt
  of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organized insurrection of
  sheep against the practice of eating mutton.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sheep, Practice, Differences

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Impact of Science On Society”, p.44, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Greatness, Imagination

  Bertrand Russell (1997). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.161, Oxford University Press, USA

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• I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Philosophy, Believe

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• Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Past, Degrees

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Charles Marsh (1988). “Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950”, p.180, Psychology Press

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