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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 10

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The Ten Commandments should be headed like an examination paper: No more than six to be attempted.

The Ten Commandments should be headed like an examination paper: No more than six to be attempted.

Bertrand Russell
Paper, Examination, Six

The objections to religion are of two sorts - intellectual and moral. The intellectual objection is that there is no reason to suppose any religion true; the moral objection is that religious precepts date from a time when men were more cruel than they are and therefore tend to perpetuate inhumanities which the moral conscience of the age would otherwise outgrow.

Bertrand Russell
Death, Religious, Men
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

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

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

Bertrand Russell
Fear, Believe, Animal
Unpopular Essays (1950) "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

Since Adam and Eve ate the apple, man has never refrained from any folly of which he was capable.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Apples, Adam
"History of the World in Epitome (For Use in Martian Infant Schools)". Book by Bertrand Russell, as quoted in Slater Bertrand Russell (1994), p. 136, 1959.

Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason. Then I think that the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety.

Bertrand Russell
Powerful, Believe, Thinking
Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.187, Psychology Press

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophical, Men, Animal
"Unpopular Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1950.

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

...the nonexistence of God makes more difference to some of us than to others. To me, it means that there is no absolute morality, that moralities are sets of social conventions devised by humans to satisfy their needs.

Bertrand Russell
Mean, Differences, Needs

The really useful education is that which follows the direction of the child's own instinctive interests, supplying knowledge for which it is seeking, not dry, detailed information wholly out of relation to its spontaneous desires.

Bertrand Russell
Children, Desire, Dry
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.142, Booklassic

Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.

Bertrand Russell
Writing

What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Men, Want

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.

Bertrand Russell
Suffering, Wicked, Injustice
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.814, Routledge

Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly.

Bertrand Russell
Inspirational, Happiness, Happy
Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.176, Psychology Press

Who ever heard a theologian preface his creed, or a politician conclude his speech with an estimate of the probable error of his opinion?

Bertrand Russell
Errors, Speech, Opinion

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

Bertrand Russell
Love, Life, Giving
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.80, Routledge

It may seem to your conceited to suppose that you can do anything important toward improving the lot of mankind. But this is a fallacy. You must believe that you can help bring about a better world. A good society is produced only by good individuals, just as truly as a majority in a presidential election is produced by the votes of single electors. Everybody can do something toward creating in his own environment kindly feelings rather than anger, reasonableness rather than hysteria, happiness rather than misery.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Conceited, Hysteria
Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.642, Psychology Press

Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.

Bertrand Russell
Happiness, Eugenics, People
Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.117, Routledge

I was told that The Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Memories, Regret
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.346, Routledge

Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be called a friendly interest in persons and things.

Bertrand Russell
Happiness, Friendly, Fundamentals
Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.107, Routledge

Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Desire, Action
Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.172, Routledge

Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless.

Bertrand Russell
Religion, Atheism, Purpose

I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Thinking, Adequate
Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.440, Psychology Press

There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.

Bertrand Russell
Ideas, World, Poverty
Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

My first advice (on how not to grow old) would be to choose you ancestors carefully.

Bertrand Russell
Advice, Age, Would Be

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