Civilized life has altogether grown too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide a harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting.
Bertrand RussellNever let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.
Bertrand RussellMorally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treachery.
Bertrand RussellDescartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.
Bertrand RussellEducation ought to foster the wish for truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth.
Bertrand RussellA good social system is not to be secured by making people unselfish, but, by making their own vital impulses fit in with other peoples. This is feasible. Those who have produced stoic philosophies have all had enough to eat and drink. I feel I shall find the truth on my deathbed and be surrounded by people too stupid to understandโfussing about medicines instead of searching for wisdom. I hate being all tidy like a book in a library where nobody reads โ prison is horribly like that.
Bertrand Russell