Bertrand Russell Quotes about Character

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

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

The harm that theology has done is not to create cruel impulses, but to give them the sanction of what professes to be lofty ethic, and to confer an apparently sacred character upon practices which have come down from more ignorant and barbarous times.

Bertrand Russell

Character, Practice, Giving

Bertrand Russell (1997). “Religion and Science”, p.106, Oxford University Press, USA

The first essential character [of civilization], I should say, is forethought. This, indeed, is what mainly distinguishes men from brutes and adults from children.

Bertrand Russell

Children, Character, Men

"The Quotable Bertrand Russell".

Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.

Bertrand Russell

Character, Men, Self

Bertrand Russell (2009). “Authority and the Individual”, p.51, Routledge

When it was first proposed to establish laboratories at Cambridge, Todhunter, the mathematician, objected that it was unnecessary for students to see experiments performed, since the results could be vouched for by their teachers, all of them of the highest character, and many of them clergymen of the Church of England.

Bertrand Russell

Teacher, Character, Science

Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.620, Psychology Press

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