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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 32

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The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men.

The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Men, Animal
Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.28, Bertrand Russell

More cranks take up unfashionable errors than unfashionable truths.

Bertrand Russell
Errors, Crank
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.93, Routledge

I resolved from the beginning of my quest that I would not be misled by sentiment and desire into beliefs for which there was no good evidence.

Bertrand Russell
Desire, Quests, Belief
Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2005). “Détente Or Destruction, 1955-57”, p.83, Psychology Press

As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our trouble. . . . No Catholic, for instance, takes seriously the text which says that a Bishop should be the husband of one wife.

Bertrand Russell
Husband, Rely Upon, Wife
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.90, Routledge

To modern educated people, it seems obvious that matters of fact are to be ascertained by observation, not by consulting ancient authorities. But this is an entirely modern conception, which hardly existed before the seventeenth century.

Bertrand Russell
People, Matter, Facts
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.6, Routledge

... mathematical knowledge ... is, in fact, merely verbal knowledge. "3" means "2+1", and "4" means "3+1". Hence it follows (though the proof is long) that "4" means the same as "2+2". Thus mathematical knowledge ceases to be mysterious.

Bertrand Russell
Mean, Numbers, Long

[Kant] was like many people: in intellectual matters he was skeptical, but in moral matters he believed imjplicitly in the maximx that he had imbibed at his mother's knee.

Bertrand Russell
Mother, People, Intellectual

The purpose of education is to teach a defense against eloquence.

Bertrand Russell
Defense, Purpose, Teach

Children, after being limbs of Satan in traditional theology and mystically illuminated angels in the minds of educational reformers, have reverted to being little devils; not theological demons inspired by the evil one, but scientific Freudian abominations inspired by the unconscious.

Bertrand Russell
Children, Educational, Angel
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.60, Routledge

This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate.

Bertrand Russell
Ideas, Humanity, Weapons
Speech in Birmingham, England encouraging civil disobedience in support of nuclear disarmament, April 15, 1961.

Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of mankind will be brief if measured in astronomical scale

Bertrand Russell
Individuality, Life Is, Scales
Bertrand Russell (1944). “Pamphlets: The value of free thought; Ideas that have harmed mankind; Ideas that have helped mankind; The faith of a rationalist”

At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.

Bertrand Russell
War, Victory, Facts
Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.99, Psychology Press

Written words differ from spoken words in being material structures. A spoken word is a process in the physical world, having an essential time-order; a written word is a series of pieces of matter, having an essential space-order.

Bertrand Russell
Order, Space, Essentials
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.81, Routledge

In a Balkan country, not so many years ago, a party which had been beaten by a narrow margin in a general election retrieved its fortunes by shooting a sufficient number of the representatives of the other side to give it a majority. . . . Cromwell and Robespierre . . . acted likewise.

Bertrand Russell
Country, Party, Years
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.136, Routledge

In mass cruelty, the expulsions of Germans ordered by the Russians fall not very far short of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis.

Bertrand Russell
Fall, Atrocities, Nazi
Bertrand Russell (1944). “Pamphlets: The value of free thought; Ideas that have harmed mankind; Ideas that have helped mankind; The faith of a rationalist”

In the great depression, things could only be set right by causing the idle plant to work again . . . Roosevelt . . . spent billions of public money and created a huge public debt, but by so doing he revived production and brought his country out of the depression. Businessmen, who in spite of such a sharp lesson continued to believe in old-fashioned economics, were infinitely shocked, and although Roosevelt saved them from ruin, they continued to curse him and to speak of him as 'the madman in the White House.' . . . [It's one more] striking example of inability to learn from experience.

Bertrand Russell
Country, Believe, White

Look at me. Look at me is one of the fundamental desires of human heart.

Bertrand Russell
Heart, Desire, Fundamentals

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens.

Bertrand Russell
Heaven

Neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point.

Bertrand Russell
Church, Public Opinion, Modern
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.80, Routledge

People who are vigorous and brutal often find war enjoyable.

Bertrand Russell
War, People, Brutal
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.19, Routledge

When anaesthetics were invented they were thought to be wicked as being an attempt to thwart God's will. Insanity was thought to be due to diabolic possession, and it was believed that demons inhabiting a madman could be driven out by inflicting pain upon him, and so making them uncomfortable. In pursuit of this opinion, lunatics were treated for years on end with systematic and conscientious brutality.

Bertrand Russell
Pain, Years, Insanity
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.107, Routledge

Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

Bertrand Russell
Thinking, Use, Opinion
Bertrand Russell (1972). “The Collected Stories of Bertrand Russell”, London : G. Allen & Unwin

In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged.

Bertrand Russell
People, Democracy, Should
Bertrand Russell, Ray Perkins (Jr.) (2002). “Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor”, p.161, Open Court Publishing

Experience has taught me a technique for dealing with such people [...] I counter the devotees of the Great Pyramid by adoration of the Sphinx; and the devotee of nuts by pointing out that hazelnuts and walnuts are as deleterious as other foods and only Brazil nuts should be tolerated. But when I was younger I had not yet acquired this technique, with the result that my contacts with cranks were sometimes alarming.

Bertrand Russell
Nuts, Pyramids, People

The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know the hotter you get.

Bertrand Russell
Wise, Wisdom, Emotional
"Distilled Wisdom". Book by Alfred Armand Montapert, p. 145, 1964.

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