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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 17

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It is a curious and painful fact that almost all the completely futile treatments that have been believed in during the long history of medical folly have been such as caused acute suffering to the patient. When

It is a curious and painful fact that almost all the completely futile treatments that have been believed in during the long history of medical folly have been such as caused acute suffering to the patient. When anesthetics were discovered, pious people considered them an attempt to evade the will of God. It was pointed out, however, that when God extracted Adam's rib He put him into a deep sleep. This proved that anesthetics are all right for men; women, however, ought to suffer, because of the curse of Eve.

Bertrand Russell
Pain, Sleep, Science
Bertrand Russell (1972). “Atheism: collected essays, 1943-1949”, Arno Pr

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

Bertrand Russell
Spiritual, Philosophy, Philosophical
Bertrand Russell (2013). “An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth”, p.15, Routledge

There may be no good reasons for very many opinions that are held with passion.

Bertrand Russell
Passion, May, Opinion

Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

Bertrand Russell
Courage, Men, Thinking
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.70, Routledge

The more you complain the longer God lets you live

Bertrand Russell
Complaining, Serious, Funny Bumper Sticker

All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.

Bertrand Russell
Math, Science, Ideas
Bertrand Russell (2001). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.45, Psychology Press

What science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.

Bertrand Russell
Mankind, Humankind, Knows
"Religion and Science". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. IX: Science of Ethics, 1935.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.

Bertrand Russell
Magic, Firsts, Friendship Love
Bertrand Russell (1975). “The conquest of happiness”

There is no greater reason for children to honour parents than for parents to honour children except, that while the children are young, the parents are stronger than children.

Bertrand Russell
Anniversary, Children, Parent
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.11, Routledge

War can only be abolished by the establishment of a world government.

Bertrand Russell
War, World Government, Establishment
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.86, Routledge

When I say that children should be told about sex, I do not mean that they should be told only the bare physiological facts; they should be told whatever they wish to know. There should be no attempt to represent adults as more virtuous than they are, or sex as occurring only in marriage. There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them, and feel justified in lying to them.

Bertrand Russell
Sex, Children, Lying
Bertrand Russell (1987). “Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage”

What was exciting in the Victorian Age, would leave a man of franker epoch quite unmoved. The more prudes restrict the permissible degree of sexual appeal, the less is required to make such an appeal effective.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Age, Prudes
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.75, Routledge

Descartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.

Bertrand Russell
Teacher, Father, Philosophy
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.45, Routledge

In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire those powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils. There is no hope for the world unless power can be tamed, and brought into the service, not of this or that group of fanatical tyrants, but of the whole human race, white and yellow and black, fascist and communist and democrat; for science has made it inevitable that all must live or all must die.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Yellow, White
"Power: A New Social Analysis". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers, 1938.

Choose your parents wisely.

Bertrand Russell
Parent
Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell Volume 29: Détente or Destruction, 1955-57”, p.365, Routledge

The secrets to happiness include enterprise, exploration of one's interests and the overcoming of obstacles.

Bertrand Russell
Secret, Overcoming, Obstacles

Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.

Bertrand Russell
Views, Evil, Achievement
Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.176, Psychology Press

Stupidity and unconscious bias often work more damage than venality.

Bertrand Russell
Stupidity, Damage, Bias
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.121, Psychology Press

It's coexistence or no existence.

Bertrand Russell
Diversity, Existence, Coexistence

Memory demands an image.

Bertrand Russell
Memories, Demand

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.

Bertrand Russell
Change, Happiness, Happy
Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.395, Psychology Press

The whiter my hair becomes, the more ready people are to believe what I say.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Hair, People
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.103, Routledge

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
Hysteria, Creating, Feelings

The sea, the stars, the night wind in waste places, mean more to me than even the human beings I love best.

Bertrand Russell
Stars, Mean, Night
Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.261, Routledge

For my part I distrust all generalizations about women, favorable and unfavorable, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern; all alike, I should say, result from paucity of experience.

Bertrand Russell
Women, Masculine And Feminine, Ancient
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.65, Routledge

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