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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 11

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If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.

If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.

Bertrand Russell
Christmas, Work, Holiday
Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 5

Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.

Bertrand Russell
Animal, Men, Long
"Unpopular Essays".

I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.

Bertrand Russell
Beautiful, Hate, Believe
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.125, Routledge

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.

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

Are you never afraid of God's judgement in denying him? Most certainly not. I also deny Zeus and Jupiter and Odin and Brahma, but this causes me no qualms. I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. 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
Believe, Thinking, Odin

More and more people are becoming unable to accept traditional [religious] beliefs. If they think that, apart from these beliefs, there is no reason for kindly behaviour, the results may be needlessly unfortunate. That is why it is important to show that no supernatural reasons are needed to make [people] kind and to prove that only through kindness can the human race achieve happiness.

Bertrand Russell
Religious, Kindness, Philosophical
Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.88, Psychology Press

Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Branches, Claims
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Our Knowledge of the External World”, p.1, Routledge

One is always a little afraid of love, but above all, one is afraid of pain or causing pain.

Bertrand Russell
Pain, Causing Pain, Littles

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

Even if we could be certain that one of the world's religions were perfectly true, given the sheer number of conflicting faiths on offer, every believer should expect damnation purely as a matter of probability.

Bertrand Russell
Numbers, Religion, World

There is darkness without and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, nor vastness anywhere; only triviality for a moment and then nothing.

Bertrand Russell
Darkness Within, Vastness, Splendor
Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.393, Psychology Press

The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. 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
Children, War, Teaching
"Why I Am Not a Christian".

Any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued.

Bertrand Russell
Happiness, People, Doe
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.89, Lulu Press, Inc

There have been poverty, pestilence, and famine, which were due to man's inadequate mastery of nature. There have been wars, oppressions and tortures which have been due to men's hostility to their fellow men.

Bertrand Russell
War, Men, Mastery
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.81, Routledge

Reason may be a small force, but it is constant, and works always in one direction, while the forces of unreason destroy one another in futile strife.

Bertrand Russell
One Direction, May, Reason
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.100, Psychology Press

Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do great harm.

Bertrand Russell
Teacher, Two, Way
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.356, Routledge

BERTRAND RUSSELL, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism We've associated that word philosophy with academic study that in its own way has gotten so far beyond the layman that if you read contemporary philosophy you've no clue, because it's almost become math. And it's odd that if you don't do that and you call yourself a philosopher that you always get 'homespun' attached to it.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Math, Way

When the state intervenes to insure the indoctrination of some doctrine, it does so because there is no conclusive evidence in favor of that doctrine.

Bertrand Russell
Government, Doe, Doctrine

I feel as if one would only discover on one's death-bed what one ought to have lived for, and realise too late that one's life has been wasted. Any passionate and courageous life seems good in itself, yet one feels that some element of delusion is involved in giving so much passion to any humanly attainable object. And so irony creeps into the very springs of one's being.

Bertrand Russell
Spring, Passion, Giving
Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.232, Routledge

How much good it would do if one could exterminate the human race.

Bertrand Russell
Race, Humans, Human Race
"Bibliography of Bertrand Russell". Book by Kenneth Blackwell and Harry Ruja, 1994.

[There has been] every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

Bertrand Russell
Names, People, Religion
Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.17, Lulu Press, Inc

Happiness, as is evident, depends partly upon external circumstances and partly upon oneself.

Bertrand Russell
Circumstances, Oneself, Depends
Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.89, W. W. Norton & Company

Prophets, mystics, poets, scientific discoverers are men whose lives are dominated by a vision; they are essentially solitary men . . . whose thoughts and emotions are not subject to the dominion of the herd.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Vision, Dominion
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.337, Routledge

Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.

Bertrand Russell
Wisdom, Class, Community
Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Thinking, Wish
BBC interview on "Face to Face", 1959.

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