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Bertrand Russell Quotes about War

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War doesn't determine who's right, it determines who's left

War doesn't determine who's right, it determines who's left

Bertrand Russell
War, Determine, Left

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Bertrand Russell
Peace, Military, War

Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.

Bertrand Russell
Peace, War, Men
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.276, Routledge

It would now be technically possible to unify the world, abolish war and poverty altogether, if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies.

Bertrand Russell
War, Men, Enemy

And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride.

Bertrand Russell
Country, War, Stupid
Bertrand Russell, Ray Perkins (Jr.) (2002). “Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor”, p.35, Open Court Publishing

The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

Bertrand Russell
Children, War, Teaching
"Why I Am Not a Christian".

There have been poverty, pestilence, and famine, which were due to man's inadequate mastery of nature. There have been wars, oppressions and tortures which have been due to men's hostility to their fellow men.

Bertrand Russell
War, Men, Mastery
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.81, Routledge

There is a possibility in human minds of something mysterious as the night-wind, deep as the sea, calm as the stars, and strong as Death, a mystic contemplation, the “intellectual love of God.” Those who have known it cannot believe in wars any longer, or in any kind of hot struggle. If I could give to others what has come to me in this way, I could make them too feel the futility of fighting. But I do not know how to communicate it: when I speak, they stare, applaud, or smile, but do not understand.

Bertrand Russell
Strong, Stars, War
Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.319, Routledge

I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity.

Bertrand Russell
Love, Children, War
Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.240, Psychology Press

War can only be abolished by the establishment of a world government.

Bertrand Russell
War, World Government, Establishment
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.86, Routledge

Science seems to be at war with itself.... Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

Bertrand Russell
War, Science, Technology

Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit.

Bertrand Russell
Sweet, War, Political

Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.

Bertrand Russell
Spiritual, War, Evil
Charles Chatfield, Bertrand Russell, Ralph Barton Perry (1972). “ETHICS OF WAR”, Dissertations-G

The criminal law has, from the point of view of thwarted virtue, the merit of allowing an outlet for those impulses of aggression which cowardice, disguised as morality, restrains in their more spontaneous forms. War has the same merit. You must not kill you neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little propaganda this hate can be transferred to some foreign nation, against whom all your murderous impulses become patriotic heroism.

Bertrand Russell
Hate, War, Patriotic

You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, War, Race
Bertrand Russell, Robert Edward Egner (1961). “The basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”

It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force.

Bertrand Russell
War, Government, Serious
David Herbert Lawrence, Bertrand Russell (1948). “Letters to Bertrand Russell”

I read Zuleika Dobson with pleasure. It represents the Oxford that the two World Wars have destroyed with a charm that is not likely to be reproduced anywhere in the world for the next thousand years.

Bertrand Russell
War, Years, Oxford

When two great powers disagree about anything - it doesn't matter what - they must find a way to settle it somehow by arbitration or by negotiation, not by war or threat of war.

Bertrand Russell
War, Two, Arbitration

Against the vast majority of my countrymen, even at this moment, in the name of humanity and civilization, I protest against our share in the destruction of Germany. A month ago Europe was a peaceful comity of nations; if an Englishman killed a German, he was hanged. Now, if an Englishman kills a German, or if a German kills an Englishman, he is a patriot, who has deserved well of his country.

Bertrand Russell
Country, War, Europe
Bertrand Russell (1994). “Prophecy and Dissent, 1914-16”, p.7, Psychology Press

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

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

The three main extra-rational activities in modern life are religion, war, and love. all these are extra-rational, but love is not anti-rational, that is to say, a reasonable man may reasonably rejoice in its existence

Bertrand Russell
War, Men, Love Is
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.74, Routledge

Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favour of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life.

Bertrand Russell
Life, War, Pestilence
Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

To discover a system for the avoidance of war is a vital need of our civilisation.

Bertrand Russell
War, Needs, Civilisation
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.6, Lulu Press, Inc

It would have been very much better for the world if Britain had remained neutral and the Germans had won a quick victory. We should not have had either the Nazis or the Communists if that had happened.

Bertrand Russell
War, Victory, World

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