Bertrand Russell Quotes

948 Sourced Quotes

Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.

Bertrand Russell
We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so.

Bertrand Russell
The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation, and the first step towards co-operation lies in the hearts of individuals.

Bertrand Russell
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

Bertrand Russell
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

Bertrand Russell
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Bertrand Russell
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

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
The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilized men.

Bertrand Russell
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure...

Bertrand Russell
Look at me. Look at me is one of the fundamental desires of human heart.

Bertrand Russell
Mathematics is only the art of saying the same thing in different words.

Bertrand Russell
All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system; and the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.

Bertrand Russell
I do not think it possible to get anywhere if we start from scepticism. We must start from a broad acceptance of whatever seems to be knowledge and is not rejected for some specific reason.

Bertrand Russell
Supposing you got a crate of oranges that you opened, and you found all the top layer of oranges bad, you would not argue, "The underneath ones must be good, so as to redress the balance"; You would say, "Probably the whole lot is a bad consignment"; and that is really what a scientific person would say about the universe.

Bertrand Russell
Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little: it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.

Bertrand Russell
The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.

Bertrand Russell
If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, your church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind or generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.

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

Bertrand Russell
An irrational fear should never be simply let alone, but should be gradually overcome by familiarity with its fainter forms.

Bertrand Russell
There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.

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

Bertrand Russell
The nineteenth century which prides itself upon the invention of steam and evolution, might have derived a more legitimate title to fame from the discovery of pure mathematics.

Bertrand Russell
Abstract work, if one wishes to do it well, must be allowed to destroy one's humanity; one raises a monument which is at the same time a tomb, in which, voluntarily, one slowly inters oneself.

Bertrand Russell
The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.

Bertrand Russell