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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 26

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The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large.

The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Majority, Ordinary
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.2, Booklassic

Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.

Bertrand Russell
Worship, Wells
Bertrand Russell, Ray Perkins (Jr.) (2002). “Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor”, p.7, Open Court Publishing

All great books contain boring portions, and all great lives have contained uninteresting stretches.

Bertrand Russell
Book, Greatness, Boring
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.34, Lulu Press, Inc

The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security.

Bertrand Russell
Wish, Would Be, Leisure
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.26, Lulu Press, Inc

Is the set of all sets which are not members of themselves a member of itself?

Bertrand Russell
Members

The true spirit of delight...is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

Bertrand Russell
Delight, Spirit, Mathematics

A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Bertrand Russell
Smell, Petroleum
Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.109, Routledge

Marx's father became a Christian when Marx was a little boy, and some, at least, of the dogmas he must have then accepted seem to have born fruit in his son's psychology.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, Father, Son
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.147, Routledge

Among the Tibetans, one wife has many husbands, because men are too poor to support a whole wife.

Bertrand Russell
Husband, Men, Wife
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.59, Routledge

[Freedom] is the greatest of political goods. I do not say freedom is the greatest of all goods: the best things come from within they are such things as creative art, and love, and thought. Such things can be helped or hindered by political conditions, but not actually produced by them; and freedom is, both in itself and in its relation to these other goods the best thing that political and economic conditions can secure.

Bertrand Russell
Art, Creative, Political
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.85, Booklassic

A drop of water is not immortal; it can be resolved into oxygen and hydrogen. If, therefore, a drop of water were to maintain that it had a quality of aqueousness which would survive its dissolution we should be inclined to be skeptical. In like manner we know that the brain is not immortal.

Bertrand Russell
Oxygen, Water, Brain
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject.

Bertrand Russell
Faith, Religious, Loss
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.30, Routledge

I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step toward any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Land, World
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.112, Booklassic

Religions which have any very strong hold over men's actions have generally some instinctive basis.

Bertrand Russell
Strong, Men, Religion
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.12, Routledge

There is a further advantage [to hydrogen bombs]: the supply of uranium in the planet is very limited, and it might be feared that it would be used up before the human race was exterminated, but now that the practically unlimited supply of hydrogen can be utilized, there is considerable reason to hope that homo sapiens may put an end to himself, to the great advantage of such less ferocious animals as may survive. But it is time to return to less cheerful topics.

Bertrand Russell
Animal, Race, Hydrogen Bomb

While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless ...; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance. Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying 'I know this', we ought to say 'I more or less know something more or less like this'. ... Knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Ignorance, Knowledge

We know that the exercise of virtue should be its own reward, and it seems to follow that the enduring of it on the part of the patient should be its own punishment.

Bertrand Russell
Exercise, Punishment, Rewards
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.91, Psychology Press

The law of causality, I believe, like much that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Law, Age
'Mysticism and Logic' (1919)

Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Bertrand Russell
Encouragement, Truth, Teaching
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.45, 谷月社

The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.

Bertrand Russell
Wish, Typical, Causes
Bertrand Russell (1922). “The problem of China”

Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better.

Bertrand Russell
Government, Nine, Modern
Bertrand Russell (2007). “The Problem of China”, p.204, Cosimo, Inc.

We are told that Sin consists in acting contrary to God's commands, but we are also told that God is omnipotent. . . . This leads to frightful results. . . . The British State considers it the duty of an Englishman to kill people who are not English whenever a collection of elderly gentlemen in Westminster tells him to do so. . . . Church and State are placable enemies of both intelligence and virtue.

Bertrand Russell
Elderly, People, Gentleman

Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Wish, Philosopher
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.24, Bertrand Russell

I am as drunk as a lord, but then, I am one, so what does it matter ?

Bertrand Russell
Drunk, Alcohol, Does It Matter

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.

Bertrand Russell
Friendship, Thinking, Perfect
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.65, Lulu Press, Inc

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