Bertrand Russell Quotes

The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.

You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world.

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

Man can be scientifically manipulated.

Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. Those who continually search for happiness will never find it. Happiness is made, not found. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

Righteousness cannot be born until self-righteousness is dead.

Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possiblities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what the may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familar things in an unfamilar aspect

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

One's work is never so bad as it appears on bad days, nor so good as it appears on good days.

What Galileo and Newton were to the seventeenth century, Darwin was to the nineteenth.

He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness of human life, he will realize also that in individual minds is concentrated whatever of value the known universe contains.

Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never.

To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true.

To be able to concentrate for a considerable time is essential to difficult achievement.

Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle.

To discover a system for the avoidance of war is a vital need of our civilisation.

The luxury to disparage freedom is the privilege of those who already possess it.

The Stoic assures us that what is happening now will happen over and over again. [If so, Providende would] ultimately grow weary through despair.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.

Who ever heard a theologian preface his creed, or a politician conclude his speech with an estimate of the probable error of his opinion?

This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate.

When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe, but look only and surely at what are the facts.

Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.

Thinking you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone

Orthodoxy is the death of intelligence.

To create a healthy philosophy you should renounce metaphysics but be a good mathematician.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

For love of domination we must substitute equality; for love of victory we must substitute justice; for brutality we must substitute intelligence; for competition we must substitute cooperation. We must learn to think of the human race as one family.

The dictum that human nature cannot be changed is one of those tiresome platitudes that conceal from the ignorant the depths of their own ignorance.

There may be no good reasons for very many opinions that are held with passion.

It would have been very much better for the world if Britain had remained neutral and the Germans had won a quick victory. We should not have had either the Nazis or the Communists if that had happened.

If 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.

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.

I cannot escape from the conclusion that the great ages of progress have depended upon a small number of individuals of transcendent ability.

In considering irregular appearances, there are certain very natural mistakes which must be avoided.

It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true

Love is a slippery eel that bites like hell

For my part, the thing I would wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. But what the typical modern man desires to get with it is more money, with a view to ostentation, splendour, and the outshining of those who have hitherto been his equals.

I believe myself that romantic love is the source of the most intense delights that life has to offer. In the relation of a man and woman who love each other with passion and imagination and tenderness, there is something of inestimable value, to be ignorant of which is a great misfortune to any human being.

The more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs.

A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree or certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world suffers.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Punctuality is a quality the need of which is bound up with social co-operation. It has nothing to do with the relation of the soul to God, or with mystic insight, or with any of the matters with which the more elevated and spiritual moralists are concerned.