Bertrand Russell Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell Quotes & Sayings

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The dictum that human nature cannot be changed is one of those tiresome platitudes that conceal from the ignorant the depths of their own ignorance. — Bertrand Russell

There is little of the true philosophic spirit in Aquinas. He does not, like the Platonic Socrates, set out to follow wherever the argument may lead. — Bertrand Russell

The man who only loves beautiful things is dreaming, whereas the man who knows absolute beauty is wide awake. — Bertrand Russell

Moral progress has consisted in the main of protest against cruel customs, and of attempts to enlarge human sympathy. — Bertrand Russell

The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe. — Bertrand Russell

The commonest objection to birth control is that it is against nature. — Bertrand Russell

The sentiments of an adult are compounded of a kernal of instinct surrounded by a vast husk of education. — Bertrand Russell

Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be called a friendly interest in persons and things. — Bertrand Russell

Whether science-and indeed civilization in general-can long survive depends upon psychology, that is to say, it depends upon what human beings desire. — Bertrand Russell

Only six need be attempted. — Bertrand Russell

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

In our complex world, there cannot be fruitful initiative without government, but unfortunately there can be government without initiative. — Bertrand Russell

Why repeat the old errors, if there are so many new errors to commit? — Bertrand Russell

It was the duty of wives to submit to husbands, not of husbands to submit to wives ... men have stronger muscles than women. — Bertrand Russell

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power. — Bertrand Russell

Fanaticism is the danger of the world, and always has been, and has done untold harm. I might almost say that I was fanatical against fanaticism. — Bertrand Russell

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short. — Bertrand Russell

If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation do you prefer the grain to the vote? — Bertrand Russell

Cruelty is, in theory, a perfectly adequate ground for divorce, but it may be interpreted so as to become absurd. — Bertrand Russell

The rules of logic are to mathematics what those of structure are to architecture. — Bertrand Russell

None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error. — Bertrand Russell

Life and hope for the world are to be found only in the deeds of love. — Bertrand Russell

Physics, owing to the simplicity of its subject matter, has reached a higher state of development than any other science. — Bertrand Russell

One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about. — Bertrand Russell

Dont let the old break you; let the love make you — Bertrand Russell

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

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation. — Bertrand Russell

The human heart as modern civilization has made it is more prone to hatred than to friendship. And it is prone to hatred because it is dissatisfied. — Bertrand Russell

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile. — Bertrand Russell

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

One of the main causes of trouble in the world is dogmatic and fanatical belief in some doctrine for which there is no adequate evidence — Bertrand Russell

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. — Bertrand Russell

Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. — Bertrand Russell

All that alcohol does for them is to liberate the sense of sin, which reason suppresses in saner moments. — Bertrand Russell

Is the set of all sets which are not members of themselves a member of itself? — Bertrand Russell

[One] must look into hell before one has any right to speak of heaven. — Bertrand Russell

The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself. — Bertrand Russell

Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine. — Bertrand Russell

The pursuit of knowledge is, I think, mainly actuated by love of power. And so are all advances in scientific technique. — Bertrand Russell

Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business. — Bertrand Russell

It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly. — Bertrand Russell

Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed. — Bertrand Russell

Science has made unrestricted national sovereignty incompatible with human survival. The only possibilities are now world government or death. — Bertrand Russell

Of all the studies by which men acquire citizenship of the intellectual commonwealth, no single one is so indispensable as the study of the past. — Bertrand Russell

Orthodoxy is the grave of intelligence, no matter what orthodoxy it may be. — Bertrand Russell

People who are vigorous and brutal often find war enjoyable. — Bertrand Russell

In a man whose reasoning powers are good, fallacious arguments are evidence of bias. — Bertrand Russell

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

Religion may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the government. — Bertrand Russell

What science cannot tell us, mankind cannot know. — Bertrand Russell

Mysticism is, in essence, little more than a certain intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what is believed about the universe. — Bertrand Russell

We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach. — Bertrand Russell

Choose your parents wisely. — Bertrand Russell

You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go. — Bertrand Russell

The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities. — Bertrand Russell

Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. — Bertrand Russell

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. — Bertrand Russell

That the world is in a bad shape is undeniable, but there is not the faintest reason in history to suppose that Christianity offers a way out. — Bertrand Russell

Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one. — Bertrand Russell

Shakespeare ... If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can]. — Bertrand Russell

Man can be scientifically manipulated. — Bertrand Russell

Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it. — Bertrand Russell

The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts. — Bertrand Russell

Calculating machines do sums better than even the cleverest people ... As arithmetic has grown easier, it has come to be less respected. — Bertrand Russell

I am as drunk as a lord, but then, I am one, so what does it matter ? — Bertrand Russell

The atomists , unlike Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , sought to explain the world without introducing the notion of purpose or final cause. — Bertrand Russell

Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted. — Bertrand Russell

More cranks take up unfashionable errors than unfashionable truths. — Bertrand Russell

If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State. — Bertrand Russell

Education is not to be viewed as something like filling a vessel with water but, rather, assisting a flower to grow in its own way — Bertrand Russell

No one ever gossips about the virtues of others — Bertrand Russell

The whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. — Bertrand Russell

Human nature being what it is, people will insist upon getting some pleasure out of life. — Bertrand Russell

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf. — Bertrand Russell

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons — Bertrand Russell

To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy. — Bertrand Russell

As for earthquakes, though they were still formidable, they were so interesting that men of science could hardly regret them. — Bertrand Russell

Unhappy business men, I am convinced, would increase their happiness more by walking six miles every day than by any conceivable change of philosophy. — Bertrand Russell

There is no difference between someone who eats too little and sees Heaven and someone who drinks too much and sees snakes. — Bertrand Russell

I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me. — Bertrand Russell

The essence of life is doing things for their own sakes. — Bertrand Russell

Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of political events. — Bertrand Russell

In all the creative work that I have done, what has come first is a problem, a puzzle involving discomfort. — Bertrand Russell

Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance. — Bertrand Russell

All forms of fear produce fatigue. — Bertrand Russell

A million million years gives us some time to prepare for the end ... let us make the best of it. — Bertrand Russell

All great books contain boring portions, and all great lives have contained uninteresting stretches. — Bertrand Russell

The resistance to a new idea increases by the square of its importance. — Bertrand Russell

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. — Bertrand Russell

Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men that comes chiefly through their work. — Bertrand Russell

Life is just one cup of coffee after another, and don't look for anything else. — Bertrand Russell

If everything has a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just be the world as God ... — Bertrand Russell

It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you. — Bertrand Russell

Faith: a firm belief for which there is no evidence. — Bertrand Russell

Psychology often becomes the disease of which it should be the cure. — Bertrand Russell

One eminently orthodox Catholic divine laid it down that a confessor may fondle a nun's breasts, provided he does it without evil intent. — Bertrand Russell

The power of thought, the vast regions it can master. — Bertrand Russell

Beware the man of the single book — Bertrand Russell

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

The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. — Bertrand Russell