Moral progress has consisted in the main of protest against cruel customs, and of attempts to enlarge human sympathy.
Bertrand RussellEvery isolated passion, is, in isolation, insane; sanity may be defined as synthesis of insanities. Every dominant passion generates a dominant fear, the fear of its non-fulfillment. Every dominant fear generates a nightmare, sometimes in form of explicit and conscious fanaticism, sometimes in paralyzing timidity, sometimes in an unconscious or subconscious terror which finds expression only in dreams. The man who wishes to preserve sanity in a dangerous world should summon in his own mind a parliament of fears, in which each in turn is voted absurd by all the others.
Bertrand RussellHerd pressure is to be judged by two things: first, its intensity, and second, its direction.
Bertrand RussellBe isolated, be ignored, be attacked, be in doubt, be frightened, but do not be silenced.
Bertrand RussellShakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].
Bertrand RussellAs a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.
Bertrand Russell