Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 9

• What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.

  Bertrand Russell

  Balance, Atheism, Unhappy

  Bertrand Russell (1944). “The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery”

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• My sad conviction is that people can only agree about what they're not really interested in.

  Bertrand Russell

  Agreement, People, Conviction

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• What hunger is in relation to food, zest is in relation to life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Food, Zest

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.91, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindliness in favor of systematic hatred.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Intelligent, Hatred

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.403, Psychology Press

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• If we spent half an hour every day in silent immobility, I am convinced that we should conduct all our affairs, personal, national, and international, far more sanely than we do at present.

  Bertrand Russell

  Meditation, Half, Affair

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Mortals and Others”, p.35, Routledge

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• Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Happiness, Marriage

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 12

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• The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Fear, Views

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• Drunkeness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suicide, Suicidal, Alcohol

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.11, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Numbers, People

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.425, Psychology Press

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• But courage in fighting is by no means the only form, nor perhaps even the most important. There is courage in facing poverty, courage in facing derision, courage in facing the hostility of one's own herd. In these, the bravest soldiers are often lamentably deficient. And above all there is the courage to think calmly and rationally in the face of danger, and to control the impulse of panic fear or panic rage.

  Bertrand Russell

  Courage, Mean, Fighting

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.364, Routledge

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• The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wish, Typical, Causes

  Bertrand Russell (1922). “The problem of China”

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• And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, God, Spiritual

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.554, Psychology Press

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• We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Spring, Creative

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Authority and the Individual”, p.38, Routledge

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• To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, People, Effort

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.90, Lulu Press, Inc

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• It would now be technically possible to unify the world, abolish war and poverty altogether, if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Men, Enemy

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• Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, People, Criticism

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.76, Lulu Press, Inc

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• It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Birthday, Doors, Dragons

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.47, Simon and Schuster

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• Science tells us what we can know but what we can know is little and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive of many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty in the presence of vivid hopes and fears is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ignorance, Hands, Support

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.2, Routledge

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• The teacher, like the artist, the philosopher, and the man of letters, can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Artist, Creative

  "The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell".

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• The widespread interest in gossip is inspired, not by a love of knowledge but by malice: no one gossips about other people's secret virtues, but only about their secret vices. Accordingly most gossip is untrue, but care is taken not to verify it. Our neighbour's sins, like the consolations of religion, are so agreeable that we do not stop to scrutinise the evidence closely.

  Bertrand Russell

  Taken, People, Gossip

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

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• Escape from boredom is one of the really powerful desires of almost all human beings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Boredom, Desire

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.3, Routledge

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• And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, War, Stupid

  Bertrand Russell, Ray Perkins (Jr.) (2002). “Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor”, p.35, Open Court Publishing

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• The human race may well become extinct before the end of the century. Speaking as a mathematician, I should say the odds are about three to one against survival.

  Bertrand Russell

  Race, Odds, Survival

  Interview in "Playboy", 10, No. 3, 42, (March 1963) in "One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture" by Kenneth Rose, (p. 39), 2004.

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• All the important human advances that we know of since historical times began have been due to individuals of whom the majority faced virulent public opposition.

  Bertrand Russell

  Historical, Progress, Important

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• I am not myself in any degree ashamed of having changed my opinions.

  Bertrand Russell

  Acceptance, Degrees, Opinion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.59, Routledge

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