Bertrand Russell Quotes

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Very few men can be genuinely happy in a life involving continual self-assertion against the skepticism of the mass of mankind, unless they can shut themselves up in a coterie and forget the cold outer world. The man of science has no need of a coterie, since he is thought well of by everybody except his colleagues. The artist, on the contrary, is in the painful situation of having to choose between being despised and being despicable.

Bertrand Russell
Man is a part of Nature, not something contrasted with Nature.

Bertrand Russell
Logic is concerned with the real world just as truly as zoology [is].

Bertrand Russell
It is permissible with certain precautions to speak in print of coitus, but it is not permissible to employ the monosyllabic synonym for this word.

Bertrand Russell
The finding of arguments for a conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but special pleading

Bertrand Russell
In adolescence, I hated life and was continually on the verge of suicide, from which, however, I was restrained by the desire to know more mathematics. Now, on the contrary, I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more.

Bertrand Russell
Men sometimes speak as though the progress of science must necessarily be a boon to mankind, but that, I fear, is one of the comfortable nineteenth century delusions which our more disillusioned age must discard.

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

Bertrand Russell
The time has come, or is about to come, when only large-scale civil disobedience, which should be nonviolent, can save the populations from the universal death which their governments are preparing for them.

Bertrand Russell
To say that we live in an age of science is a commonplace, but like most commonplaces it is only partially true. From the point of view of our predecessors, if they could view our society, we should, no doubt, appear to be very scientific, but from the point of view of our successors it is probable that the exact opposite would seem to be the case.

Bertrand Russell
It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion.

Bertrand Russell
The man of science looks for facts that are significant, in the sense of leading to general laws; and such facts are frequently quite devoid of intrinsic interest.

Bertrand Russell
The essential characteristic of scientific technique is the utilization of natural forces in ways not evident to the totally uninstructed.

Bertrand Russell
The Mormons had a divine revelation in favour of polygamy, but under pressure from the United States Government they discovered that the revelation was not binding.

Bertrand Russell
For a good notation has a subtlety and suggestiveness which make it seem, at times, like a live teacher. Notational irregularities are often the first sign of philosophical errors, and a perfect notation would be a substitute for thought.

Bertrand Russell
The whole of theology, in regard to hell no less than to heaven, takes it for granted that Man is what is of most importance in the Universe of created beings. Since all theologians are men, this postulate has met with little opposition.

Bertrand Russell
Those who advocate common usage in philosophy sometimes speak in a manner that suggests the mystique of the 'common man.'

Bertrand Russell
As a proposition of linguistics: "Energy" is the name of the mathematical expression in question...As a propo sition of psychology: our senses are such that we notice what is roughly the mathematical expression in question, and we are led nearer and nearer to it as we refine upon our crude perceptions by scientific observation.

Bertrand Russell
Protestants, from the first, have been distinguished from their opponents by what they do not believe; to throw over one more dogma is, therefore, merely to carry the movement one stage further. Moral fervor is the essence of the matter.

Bertrand Russell
Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved.

Bertrand Russell
One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will.

Bertrand Russell
Common sense, however it tries, cannot avoid being surprised from time to time. The aim of science is to save it from such surprises.

Bertrand Russell
There was a law in Connecticut - I believe it is still formally unrepealed - making it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday.

Bertrand Russell
It may be that God made the world, but that is no reason why we should not make it over.

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