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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 3

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People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

Bertrand Russell
People, Competition, Wish
Bertrand Russell (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970”, p.215, Psychology Press

The discipline in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by society or authority.

Bertrand Russell
Discipline, Desire, Needs
Bertrand Russell (1987). “Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage”

Fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves.

Bertrand Russell
Foolish Man, Wisest Man, Thought Provoking
"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?

Bertrand Russell
Hate, Successful, Hatred
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.53, Lulu Press, Inc

I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology... Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions are generated.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, World Government, Class

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

Bertrand Russell
Life, Strong, Fear
Autobiography prologue (1967)

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

Bertrand Russell
Funny, Life, Competition
Bertrand Russell (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970”, p.215, Psychology Press

Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.

Bertrand Russell
Ideas, Blasphemy, Great Idea

I once saw a photograph of a large herd of wild elephants in Central Africa Seeing an airplane for the first time, and all in a state of wild collective terror... As, however, there were no journalists among them, the terror died down when the airplane was out of sight.

Bertrand Russell
Funny, Airplane, Elephants

I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.

Bertrand Russell
Favors, Communism, Exploitation
"Unarmed Victory". Book by Bertrand Russell, p. 14, 1963.

Next to worry probably one of the most potent causes of unhappiness is envy.

Bertrand Russell
Envy, Causes, Unhappiness
"The Conquest of Happiness".

Almost all education has a political motive: it aims at strengthening some group, national or religious or even social, in the competition with other groups. It is this motive, in the main, which determines the subjects taught, the knowledge offered and the knowledge withheld, and also decides what mental habits the pupils are expected to acquire. Hardly anything is done to foster the inward growth of mind and spirit; in fact, those who have had the most education are very often atrophied in their mental and spiritual life.

Bertrand Russell
Spiritual, Religious, Educational
"The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959".

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, Essentials, Doubt And Certainty
Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.21, Lulu Press, Inc

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know.

Bertrand Russell
Life, Badass, Philosophy
Bertrand Russell (1995). “My Philosophical Development”, p.204, Psychology Press

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

Bertrand Russell
Inspirational, Motivational, Happiness
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.15, Lulu Press, Inc

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

Bertrand Russell
Success, Work, Stress
Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 5

No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behavior to sin; he does not say, 'You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go.' He attempts to find out what is wrong and to set it right.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Giving, Car
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.40, Simon and Schuster

God and Satan alike are essentially human figures, the one a projection of ourselves, the other of our enemies.

Bertrand Russell
Enemy, Satan, Figures
Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

The chicken noticed that the farmer came every day to feed it. It predicted that the farmer would continue to bring food every day. Inductivists think that the chicken had "extrapolated" its observations into a theory, and that each feeding time added justification to that theory. Then one day the farmer came and wrung the chicken's neck. This inductively justifies the conclusion that induction cannot justify any conclusion.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, One Day, Necks

We may define "faith" as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of "faith." We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups, substitute different emotions.

Bertrand Russell
Two, Religion, Wish
Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

You must believe that you can help bring about a better world.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, World, Helping

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.

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

Beware the man of the single book

Bertrand Russell
Book, Men, He Man

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Bertrand Russell
Peace, Military, War

We are told that Sin consists in acting contrary to God's commands, but we are also told that God is omnipotent. If He is, nothing contrary to His will can occur; therefore when the sinner disobeys His commands, He must have intended this to happen.

Bertrand Russell
Funny, God, Humorous
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.51, Routledge

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