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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 15

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I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

Bertrand Russell
Death, Christian, Atheist
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live.

Bertrand Russell
Happiness, Exercise, Joy
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.63, Lulu Press, Inc

An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.

Bertrand Russell
Science, History, Perfection
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.66, 谷月社

Drunkenness is temporary suicide.

Bertrand Russell
Suicide, Drinking, Alcohol
"The Conquest of Happiness". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1930.

The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth. I'm not contending in a dogmatic way that there is not a God. What I'm contending is that we don't know that there is. I don't like the word "absolute." I don't think there is anything absolute whatever. The moral law, for example, is always changing. At one period in the development of the human race, almost everybody thought cannibalism was a duty.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Thinking, Law

Christ said "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" and when asked "who is thy neighbour? went on to the parable of the Good Samaritan. If you wish to understand this parable as it was understood by his hearers, you should substitute "Germans and Japanese" for Samaritan. I fear my modern day Christians would resent such a substitution, because it would compel them to realize how far they have departed from the teachings of the founder of their religion.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, Teaching, Departed

When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Emotional, Favour
Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.31, Bertrand Russell

A European who goes to New York and Chicago sees the future... when he goes to Asia he sees the past.

Bertrand Russell
New York, Past, Chicago
Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.555, Psychology Press

From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished. What was lost to christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary.

Bertrand Russell
Islamic, Civilization, India
Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.325, Routledge

Americans and Englishmen, when they become acquainted with the Balkans, feel an astonished contempt when they study the mutual enmities of Bulgarians and Serbs, of Hungarians and Rumanians. It is evident to them that these enmities are absurd and that the belief of each little nation in its own superiority has no objective basis. But most of them are quite unable to see that the national pride of a Great Power is essentially as unjustifiable as that of a little Balkan country.

Bertrand Russell
Country, Pride, Enmity
Bertrand Russell (1996). “Unpopular Essays”, p.170, Psychology Press

Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent

Bertrand Russell
Nature, Civilization, Openness
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.64, Routledge

The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Favors, Facts
Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.534, Psychology Press

I know a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found he was planting trees in his garden.

Bertrand Russell
Garden, Tree, Religion
Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.189, Psychology Press

The essence of life is doing things for their own sakes.

Bertrand Russell
Wisdom, Essence, Sake
Bertrand Russell (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970”, p.160, Psychology Press

Love, children, and work, are the great sources of fertilizing contact between the individual and the rest of the world.

Bertrand Russell
Children, Parent, World

But if thought is to become the possession of many, not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that holds men back - fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, fear lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect than they have supposed themselves to be.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Thinking, Done
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.96, Lulu Press, Inc

These illustrations suggest four general maxims[...]. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to persecute you.

Bertrand Russell
Illustration, People, Giving
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.68, Lulu Press, Inc

You could live without the opera singer, but not without the services of the baker. On this ground you might say that the baker performs a greater service; but no lover of music would agree.

Bertrand Russell
Music, Bakers, Opera
Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

The use of self control is like the use of brakes on train. It is useful when you find yourself in wrong direction but merely harmful when the direction is right

Bertrand Russell
Self, Use, Brake
Bertrand Russell (1987). “Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage”

No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid.

Bertrand Russell
Self, Deception, Satisfaction
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.72, Lulu Press, Inc

Unrestricted nationalism is, in the long run, incompatible with world peace.

Bertrand Russell
Running, Long, World

What will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health, if no one remembers how to use them?

Bertrand Russell
Use, Leisure, Remember
Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.22, Routledge

When there are rational grounds for an opinion, people are content to set them forth and wait for them to operate. In such cases, people do not hold their opinions with passion; they hold them calmly, and set forth their reasons quietly. The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.

Bertrand Russell
Fear, Passion, People
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.3, Psychology Press

The more we realize our minuteness and our impotence in the face of cosmic forces, the more amazing becomes what human beings have achieved.

Bertrand Russell
Achievement, Faces, Realizing
Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge And Power, Government, Majority

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