My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.
Bertrand RussellIt is one of the defects of modern higher education that it has become too much a training in the acquisition of certain kinds of skill, and too little an enlargement of the mind and heart by an impartial survey of the world.
Bertrand RussellIf all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.
Bertrand RussellIt appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.
Bertrand RussellI cannot escape from the conclusion that the great ages of progress have depended upon a small number of individuals of transcendent ability.
Bertrand RussellAn atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.
Bertrand Russell