Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 11

• One of the main causes of trouble in the world is dogmatic and fanatical belief in some doctrine for which there is no adequate evidence

  Bertrand Russell

  Doctrine, World, Adequate

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.133, Psychology Press

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• No opinion has ever been too errant to become a creed.

  Bertrand Russell

  God, Religion, Opinion

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• People are zealous for a cause when they are not quite positive that it is true.

  Bertrand Russell

  Positive Thinking, People, Zealous

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• I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.

  Bertrand Russell

  Beautiful, Hate, Believe

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.125, Routledge

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• I don't care for the applause one gets by saying what others are thinking; I want actually to change people's thoughts. Power over people's minds is the main personal desire of my life; and this sort of power is not acquired by saying popular things.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, People, Mind

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.285, Routledge

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• Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, Law

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• Choose your parents wisely.

  Bertrand Russell

  Parent

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell Volume 29: Détente or Destruction, 1955-57”, p.365, Routledge

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• What's the difference between a bright, inquisitive five-year-old, and a dull, stupid nineteen-year-old? Fourteen years of the British educational system.

  Bertrand Russell

  Educational, Stupid, School

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• Half the useful work in the world consists of combating the harmful work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Half, World

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.140, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Happiness, Marriage

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 12

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• And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, War, Stupid

  Bertrand Russell, Ray Perkins (Jr.) (2002). “Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor”, p.35, Open Court Publishing

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• Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason. Then I think that the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Believe, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.187, Psychology Press

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• Herd pressure is to be judged by two things: first, its intensity, and second, its direction.

  Bertrand Russell

  Two, Pressure, Firsts

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.62, Routledge

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• Prophets, mystics, poets, scientific discoverers are men whose lives are dominated by a vision; they are essentially solitary men . . . whose thoughts and emotions are not subject to the dominion of the herd.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Vision, Dominion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.337, Routledge

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• I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Action, Achieve

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Charles Marsh (1988). “Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950”, p.190, Psychology Press

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• A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Lying, Real

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.87, Simon and Schuster

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• The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Believe, Simple

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, p.20, Routledge

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• Are you never afraid of God's judgement in denying him? Most certainly not. I also deny Zeus and Jupiter and Odin and Brahma, but this causes me no qualms. I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Thinking, Odin

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• Every increase in knowledge requires an increase in wisdom

  Bertrand Russell

  Increase

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• All the important human advances that we know of since historical times began have been due to individuals of whom the majority faced virulent public opposition.

  Bertrand Russell

  Historical, Progress, Important

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• The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Needs, World

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.7, Lulu Press, Inc

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• My first advice (on how not to grow old) would be to choose you ancestors carefully.

  Bertrand Russell

  Advice, Age, Would Be

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• Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

  Bertrand Russell

  Drinking, Two, People

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• The first essential character [of civilization], I should say, is forethought. This, indeed, is what mainly distinguishes men from brutes and adults from children.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Character, Men

  "The Quotable Bertrand Russell".

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• The social psychologist of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, School, Army

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