Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 13

• The immense majority of intellectually eminent men disbelieve in the Christian religion, but they conceal the fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their incomes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Men, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.169, Psychology Press

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• What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer

  Bertrand Russell

  Attitude, Needs, Inquiry

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.35, Routledge

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• There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ideas, World, Poverty

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

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• There is a possibility in human minds of something mysterious as the night-wind, deep as the sea, calm as the stars, and strong as Death, a mystic contemplation, the “intellectual love of God.” Those who have known it cannot believe in wars any longer, or in any kind of hot struggle. If I could give to others what has come to me in this way, I could make them too feel the futility of fighting. But I do not know how to communicate it: when I speak, they stare, applaud, or smile, but do not understand.

  Bertrand Russell

  Strong, Stars, War

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.319, Routledge

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• One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Religion, Atheism

  "Why I Am Not a Christian" (1927)

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• I feel as if one would only discover on one's death-bed what one ought to have lived for, and realise too late that one's life has been wasted. Any passionate and courageous life seems good in itself, yet one feels that some element of delusion is involved in giving so much passion to any humanly attainable object. And so irony creeps into the very springs of one's being.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spring, Passion, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.232, Routledge

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• People will tell us that without the consolations of religion they would be intolerably unhappy. So far as this is true, it is a coward's argument. Nobody but a coward would consciously choose to live in a fool's paradise. When a man suspects his wife of infidelity, he is not thought the better of for shutting his eyes to the evidence. And I cannot see why ignoring evidence should be contemptible in one case and admirable in the other.

  Bertrand Russell

  Eye, Men, People

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.546, Psychology Press

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• More and more people are becoming unable to accept traditional [religious] beliefs. If they think that, apart from these beliefs, there is no reason for kindly behaviour, the results may be needlessly unfortunate. That is why it is important to show that no supernatural reasons are needed to make [people] kind and to prove that only through kindness can the human race achieve happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religious, Kindness, Philosophical

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.88, Psychology Press

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• The essence of life is doing things for their own sakes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Essence, Sake

  Bertrand Russell (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970”, p.160, 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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• I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Children, War

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.240, Psychology Press

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• Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Happiness, Procrastination

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.40, Lulu Press, Inc

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• When the state intervenes to insure the indoctrination of some doctrine, it does so because there is no conclusive evidence in favor of that doctrine.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, Doe, Doctrine

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• Change is scientific; progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Change, Science, History

  Bertrand Russell, Robert Edward Egner (1961). “The basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”

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• I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religious, Atheist, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.125, Psychology Press

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• Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.

  Bertrand Russell

  Animal, Men, Long

  "Unpopular Essays".

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• William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Errors, Opposites

  "Sceptical Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda, 1928.

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• The really useful education is that which follows the direction of the child's own instinctive interests, supplying knowledge for which it is seeking, not dry, detailed information wholly out of relation to its spontaneous desires.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Desire, Dry

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.142, Booklassic

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• Happiness, as is evident, depends partly upon external circumstances and partly upon oneself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Circumstances, Oneself, Depends

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.89, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The man who pursues happiness wisely will aim at the possession of a number of subsidiary interests in addition to those central ones upon which his life is built.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Numbers, Life Is

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.134, Lulu Press, Inc

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• To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, People, Effort

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.90, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Moral indignation is one of the most harmful forces in the modern world, the more so as it can always be diverted to sinister uses by those who control propaganda.

  Bertrand Russell

  Use, World, Moral

  Bertrand Russell (1960). “Sceptical Essays”

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• One must care about a world one will not see.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, Future, Ignorance

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• Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Numbers, People

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.425, Psychology Press

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• Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Branches, Claims

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Our Knowledge of the External World”, p.1, Routledge

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