Bertrand Russell Quotes

• 

  The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Confidence, Wisdom

  539 Copy quote

• All knowledge, we feel, must be built up upon our instinctive beliefs; and if these are rejected, nothing is left.

  Bertrand Russell

  Belief, Rejected, Feels

  3 Copy quote
• 

  Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Stupid, School

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.578, Routledge

  185 Copy quote

• If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Deep Life, Opinion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.99, Routledge

  50 Copy quote

• The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.

  Bertrand Russell

  Intelligent, Men, Emotional

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.441, Psychology Press

  312 Copy quote
• 

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

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Motivational, Fear

  Unpopular Essays (1950) "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

  194 Copy quote

• The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  251 Copy quote

• The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Real, Things In Life

  57 Copy quote

• To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Wish, World

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Mortals and Others”, p.318, Routledge

  87 Copy quote

• The key to happiness is accepting one unpleasant reality every day.

  Bertrand Russell

  Reality, Keys, Accepting

  27 Copy quote

• Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. 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.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, Race, Views

  284 Copy quote

• Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

  Bertrand Russell

  4th Of July, Patriotic, Government

  "Sceptical Essays". Ch. 13: Freedom in Society. Book by Bertrand Russell, 1928.

  30 Copy quote

• War doesn't determine who's right, it determines who's left

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Determine, Left

  46 Copy quote

• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Learning, Knowledge, Parenting

  Marriage and Morals ch. 5 (1929)

  49 Copy quote

• When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Children, Teaching

  138 Copy quote

• If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education.'

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Support, Intelligence

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.59, Routledge

  18 Copy quote
• 

  The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.

  Bertrand Russell

  Play, Creative, Life Is

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel (1995). “Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18”, p.228, Psychology Press

  36 Copy quote

• Fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves.

  Bertrand Russell

  Foolish Man, Wisest Man, Thought Provoking

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  24 Copy quote

• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Truth, Religion

  Marriage and Morals ch. 5 (1929)

  119 Copy quote

• A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime.

  Bertrand Russell

  Smile, Memories, Lasts

  19 Copy quote

• Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Men, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.106, Routledge

  27 Copy quote

• Most human beings, though in varying degrees, desire to control, not only their own lives but also the lives of others

  Bertrand Russell

  Desire, Degrees, Lives Of Others

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.445, Psychology Press

  45 Copy quote

• Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Government, Intelligence

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.2, Psychology Press

  78 Copy quote

• The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Success, Confidence

  124 Copy quote

• Why repeat the old errors, if there are so many new errors to commit?

  Bertrand Russell

  Errors, Commit, Repeats

  5 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Gottlob Frege

Alfred North Whitehead

David Hume

Russell Crowe

G. H. Hardy

Immanuel Kant

Jean-Paul Sartre