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Bertrand Russell Quotes about Knowledge

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There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Useless, Pleasure
"In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 2: 'Useless' Knowledge, 1935.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

Bertrand Russell
Learning, Knowledge, Parenting
Marriage and Morals ch. 5 (1929)

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Science, Imagination
Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Men, Want

The examination system, and the fact that instruction is treated mainly as a training for a livelihood, leads the young to regard knowledge from a purely utilitarian point of view as the road to money, not as the gateway to wisdom.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Science, Views
Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.409, Psychology Press

I conclude that, while it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.

Bertrand Russell
Lying, Knowledge, Science
Bertrand Russell (1997). “Religion and Science”, p.243, Oxford University Press, USA

All definite knowledge - so I should contend - belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack by both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Knowledge, Men
Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

Gradually, ... the aspect of science as knowledge is being thrust into the background by the aspect of science as the power of manipulating nature. It is because science gives us the power of manipulating nature that it has more social importance than art. Science as the pursuit of truth is the equal, but not the superior, of art. Science as a technique, though it may have little intrinsic value, has a practical importance to which art cannot aspire.

Bertrand Russell
Art, Knowledge, Science
Bertrand Russell (2017). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.16, Routledge

I hold all knowledge that is concerned with things that actually exist - all that is commonly called Science - to be of very slight value compared to the knowledge which, like philosophy and mathematics, is concerned with ideal and eternal objects, and is freed from this miserable world which God has made.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Knowledge, World
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.149, Routledge

While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless ...; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance. Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying 'I know this', we ought to say 'I more or less know something more or less like this'. ... Knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Ignorance, Knowledge

The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interest of the desire to know.

Bertrand Russell
Attitude, Knowledge, Science
Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.29, 谷月社

Science is what we know, and philosophy is what we don't know.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Knowledge, Science
Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.378, Psychology Press

Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

Bertrand Russell
Ignorance, Knowledge, Right Conduct
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.58, Routledge

Philosophy is that part of science which at present people chose to have opinions about, but which they have no knowledge about. Therefore every advance in knowledge robs philosophy of some problems which formerly it had ...and will belong to science.

Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, Knowledge, Science
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, p.124, Routledge

History is valuable, to begin with, because it is true; and this, though not the whole of its value, is the foundation and condition of all the rest. That all knowledge, as such, is in some degree good, would appear to be at least probable; and the knowledge of every historical fact possesses this element of goodness, even if it posses no other.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Historical, Facts
Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.76, Psychology Press

Whatever we know without inference is mental.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Inference, Knows
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Value”, p.240, Routledge

Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then suchand such another proposition is true of that thing.... Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Talking, May
"Mathematics and Metaphysicians" (1901)

The significance of a fact is relative to [the general body of scientific] knowledge. To say that a fact is significant in science, is to say that it helps to establish or refute some general law; for science, though it starts from observation of the particular, is not concerned essentially with the particular, but with the general. A fact, in science, is not a mere fact, but an instance. In this the scientist differs from the artist, who, if he deigns to notice facts at all, is likely to notice them in all their particularity.

Bertrand Russell
Art, Knowledge, Science

All that passes for knowledge can be arranged in a hierarchy of degrees of certainty, with arithmetic and the facts of perception at the top.

Bertrand Russell
Knowledge, Science, Perception
Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.380, Psychology Press

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