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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 20

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This illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise.

This illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise.

Bertrand Russell
Giving, Interesting, Important
Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.674, Routledge

Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man. Every careful measurement in science is always given with the probable error ... every observer admits that he is likely wrong, and knows about how much wrong he is likely to be.

Bertrand Russell
Truth, Science, Men
"The Scientific Outlook".

Science, by itself cannot, supply us with an ethic.

Bertrand Russell
Ethics, Morality

All movements go too far.

Bertrand Russell
Change, Movement, Belief
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.71, Routledge

There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that "remembered" a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.

Bertrand Russell
Past, Atheism, Events
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Analysis of Mind”, p.223, Bertrand Russell

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.

Bertrand Russell
Privilege, Revolutionary, Habit
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Why Men Fight”, p.107, Routledge

When a man acts in ways that annoy us we wish to think him wicked, and we refuse to face the fact that his annoying behavior is the result of antecedent causes which, if you follow them long enough, will take you beyond the moment of his birth, and therefore to events for which he cannot be held responsible by any stretch of imagination... When a motorcar fails to start, we do not attribute its annoying behavior to sin, we do not say, you are a wicked motorcar, and you shall not have any more gasoline until you go.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, Men, Long

Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.

Bertrand Russell
Freedom, Fear, Desire
Bertrand Russell (1996). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell: A Fresh Look at Empiricism 1927-42”

We may often do as we please - but we cannot please as we please.

Bertrand Russell
May, Please

The power of thought, the vast regions it can master.

Bertrand Russell
Masters, Power Of Thought, Regions

It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Men, Intuition
Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.527, Simon and Schuster

What Galileo and Newton were to the seventeenth century, Darwin was to the nineteenth.

Bertrand Russell
Newton, Century
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.273, Routledge

In attempting to understand the elements out of which mental phenomena are compounded, it is of the greatest importance to remember that from the protozoa to man there is nowhere a very wide gap either in structure or in behaviour. From this fact it is a highly probable inference that there is also nowhere a very wide mental gap.

Bertrand Russell
Science, Men, Mind
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Analysis of Mind”, p.54, Bertrand Russell

Writing can be either readable or precise, but not at the same time.

Bertrand Russell
Writing, Precise

Mathematics is only the art of saying the same thing in different words.

Bertrand Russell
Art, Different, Mathematics
Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.727, Routledge

I've always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel.

Bertrand Russell
Good Morning, People, Looks

It can be shown that a mathematical web of some kind can be woven about any universe containing several objects. The fact that our universe lends itself to mathematical treatment is not a fact of any great philosophical significance.

Bertrand Russell
Kindness, Philosophical, Math

As soon as it is held that any belief, no matter what, is important for some other reason than that it is true, a whole host of evils is ready to spring up.

Bertrand Russell
Spring, Evil, Important
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.197, Simon and Schuster

There seems scarcely any limit to what could be done in the way of producing a good world, if only men would use science wisely.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Use, Done
Bertrand Russell (2004). “What I Believe”, p.53, Routledge

I often long to . . . give up my life to love of my neighbour. This is really a temptation.

Bertrand Russell
Giving Up, Long, Temptation
Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.383, Psychology Press

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, Atheism, Science And Religion
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

The painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking that things seem to have the color which common sense says they 'really' have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, Color, Common Sense
Bertrand Russell (1959). “The problems of philosophy”

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.

Bertrand Russell
Truth, Evil, Growth
Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.360, Psychology Press

You may reasonably expect a man to walk a tightrope safely for ten minutes; it would be unreasonable to do so without accident for two hundred years.

Bertrand Russell
Science, Men, Years

A habit of finding pleasure in thought rather than action is a safeguard against unwisdom and excessive love of power, a means of preserving serenity in misfortune and peace of mind among worries. A life confined to what is personal is likely, sooner or later, to become unbearably painful; it is only by windows into a larger and less fretful cosmos that the more tragic parts of life become endurable.

Bertrand Russell
Mean, Worry, Serenity
Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.310, Psychology Press

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