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Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 43

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The fundamental principle in the analysis of propositions containing descriptions is this: Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.

The fundamental principle in the analysis of propositions containing descriptions is this: Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.

Bertrand Russell
Principles, Analysis, Fundamentals
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.75, Bertrand Russell

In detective stories . . . I alternately identify myself with the murderer and the huntsman-detective, but . . . there are those to which this vicarious outlet is too mild.

Bertrand Russell
Detectives, Stories, Vicarious

[Industrialism's soon diminishing] capacity to supply human needs could be prevented if men exercised any restraint or foresight in their present frenzied exploitation.

Bertrand Russell
Men, Needs, Capacity

In the ordinary business of life punctuality is . . . necessary.

Bertrand Russell
Ordinary, Punctuality
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.25, Routledge

It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results.

Bertrand Russell
Inspired, Modern, Achieve
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.96, Lulu Press, Inc

My own view on religion is . . . It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and . . . to chronicle eclipses . . . These two services I am prepared to acknowledge.

Bertrand Russell
Two, Views, Calendars

When I was a child . . . Only virtue was prized, virtue at the expense of intellect, health, happiness, and every mundane good.

Bertrand Russell
Children, Virtue, Intellect
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.120, Routledge

Plato has dramatic strength ... but is quite unaware of the strength of the argument against his position ... and allows himself to be grossly unfair in arguing against it.

Bertrand Russell
Plato, Arguing, Argument

In spreading his ideas, Plato was willing to employ emotional appeals, state propaganda, and the use of force.

Bertrand Russell
Plato, Emotional, Ideas

Aristotle's metaphysics, roughly speaking, may be described as Plato diluted by common sense. He is difficult because Plato and common sense do not mix easily.

Bertrand Russell
Plato, Common Sense, May
Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.162, Simon and Schuster

Patriotism which has the quality of intoxication is a danger not only to its native land but to the world, and "My country never wrong" is an even more dangerous maxim than "My country, right or wrong."

Bertrand Russell
Country, Land, Quality

To be out of harmony with one's surroundings is of course a misfortune, but it is not always a misfortune to be avoided at all costs. Where the environment is stupid or prejudiced or cruel, it is a sign of merit to be out of harmony with it.

Bertrand Russell
Stupid, Cost, Merit
Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.50, W. W. Norton & Company

If life is to be fully human it must serve some end which seems, in some sense, outside human life, some end which is impersonal and above mankind, such as God or truth or beauty. Those who best promote life do not have life for their purpose. They aim rather at what seems like a gradual incarnation, a bringing into our human existence of something eternal, something that appears to imagination to live in a heaven remote from strife and failure and the devouring jaws of Time.

Bertrand Russell
Imagination, Heaven, Purpose
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.144, Lulu Press, Inc

The triumph of science has been mainly due to its practical utility, and there has been an attempt to divorce this aspect from that of theory, thus making science more and more a technique, and less and less a doctrine as to the nature of the world. The penetration of this point of view to philosophers is very recent.

Bertrand Russell
Divorce, Views, Technique
Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.493, Simon and Schuster

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity.

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

When we perceive any object of a familiar kind, much of what appears subjectively to be immediately given is really derived from past experience.

Bertrand Russell
Past, Kind, Given
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Analysis of Mind: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.45, 谷月社

I used, when I was younger, to take my holidays walking. I would cover 25 miles a day, and when the evening came I had no need of anything to keep me from boredom, since the delight of sitting amply sufficed.

Bertrand Russell
Holiday, Boredom, Needs
Bertrand Russell (1971). “Bertrand Russell's best: silhouettes in satire”, Allen & Unwin

Meantime, the world in which we exist has other aims. But it will pass away, burnt up in the fire of its own hot passions; and from its ashes will spring a new and younger world, full of fresh hope, woth the light of morning in its eyes.

Bertrand Russell
Morning, Spring, Eye
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Roads to Freedom”, p.154, Routledge

A man of Seville is shaved by the Barber of Seville if and only if the man does not shave himself. Does the barber shave himself?

Bertrand Russell
Men, Ifs And, Doe

Those whose lives are fruitful to themselves, to their friends, or to the world are inspired by hope and sustained by joy: they see in imagination the things that might be and the way in which they are to be brought into existence.

Bertrand Russell
Imagination, Joy, World
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Roads to Freedom”, p.139, Routledge

Broadly speaking, Protestants like to be good and have invented theology in order to keep themselves so, whereas Catholics like to be bad and have invented theology in order to keep their neighbors good. Hence, the social character of Catholicism and the individual character of Protestantism.

Bertrand Russell
Character, Order, Catholic
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.123, Simon and Schuster

Humanistic ethics is based on the principle that only humans themselves can determine the criterion for virtue and not an authority transcending us.

Bertrand Russell
Principles, Ethics, Virtue

The taboo against nakedness is an obstacle to a decent attitude on the subject of sex.

Bertrand Russell
Sex, Attitude, Obstacles
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.71, Routledge

Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Doubt, Answers
Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.207, Bertrand Russell

The practice of inhibiting impulses, which is to a great extent necessary to civilized life, makes mistakes easier, by preventing experience of the actions to which a desire would otherwise lead, and by often causing the inhibited impulses themselves to be unnoticed or quickly forgotten.

Bertrand Russell
Mistake, Practice, Desire
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Analysis of Mind: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.40, 谷月社

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