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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 4

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It is likely that America will be more important during the next century or two, but after that it may well be the turn of China.

It is likely that America will be more important during the next century or two, but after that it may well be the turn of China.

Bertrand Russell
Two, America, Important
Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.416, Routledge

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

Bertrand Russell
Freedom, Thinking, Government
Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.443, Psychology Press

When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.

Bertrand Russell
Truth, Men, Safe
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.42, Routledge

When considering marriage one should ask oneself this question; 'will I be able to talk with this person into old age?' Everything else is transitory, the most time is spent in conversation.

Bertrand Russell
Age, Able, Should

In the visible world, the Milky Way is a tiny fragment; within this fragment, the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties, crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded.

Bertrand Russell
Years, Water, Elements
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.19, Psychology Press

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Men, Littles
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.219, Routledge

Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.

Bertrand Russell
Marriage, Sex, Feminist
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.94, Routledge

Love should be a tree whose roots are deep in the earth, but whose branches extend into heaven.

Bertrand Russell
Love, Roots, Tree
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.175, Routledge

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Bertrand Russell
Inspirational, Funny, Witty

Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so.

Bertrand Russell
Believe, Character, Government
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.45, Routledge

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Bertrand Russell
4th Of July, Patriotic, Government
"Sceptical Essays". Ch. 13: Freedom in Society. Book by Bertrand Russell, 1928.

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

Bertrand Russell
Fear, Science, Infancy Is

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

Bertrand Russell
Respect, Keeping Secrets, People
Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.50, Routledge

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

Bertrand Russell
Exercise, Liberty, Principles
Bertrand Russell (1960). “Sceptical Essays”

A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.

Bertrand Russell
Worry, Anxiety, Matter
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.40, Lulu Press, Inc

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.

Bertrand Russell
Happiness, Music, Happy Life

The more things a man is interested in, the more opportunities of happiness he has and the less he is at the mercy of fate, since if he loses one thing he can fall back upon another.

Bertrand Russell
Fall, Fate, Opportunity
Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.59, W. W. Norton & Company

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

Bertrand Russell
Happiness, Happy, Mind
Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

It's not what you have lost, but what you have left that counts.

Bertrand Russell
Losing, Lost, Left

An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, Atheist, Practice
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.557, Routledge

I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.

Bertrand Russell
Life, Happiness, Gratitude

It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true.

Bertrand Russell
Integrity, Thinking, Intellectual

One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected.

Bertrand Russell
Powerful, Passion, Desire
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.66, Psychology Press

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

Bertrand Russell
Power, Men, Religion
The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine, March 6, 1938.

To realize the unimportance of time is the gate to wisdom.

Bertrand Russell
Time, Realizing, Gates
Bertrand Russell (1981). “Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays”, p.23, Rowman & Littlefield

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