Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 15

• All religions are both harmful and untrue.

  Bertrand Russell

  Untrue

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.25, Routledge

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• I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds.

  Bertrand Russell

  Real, Emotional, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.191, Psychology Press

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• You must believe that you can help bring about a better world. A good society is produced only by good individuals, just as truly as a majority in a presidential election is produced by the votes of single electors.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Presidential, Society

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.642, Psychology Press

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• The philosophies that have been inspired by scientific technique are power philosophies, and tend to regard everything non-human as mere raw material. Ends are no longer considered; only the skillfulness of the process is valued. This also is a form of madness. It is, in our day, the most dangerous form, and the one against which a sane philosophy should provide an antidote

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Technique, Raw Materials

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• Hegel's philosophy is so odd that one would not have expected him to be able to get sane men to accept it, but he did. He set it out with so much obscurity that people thought it must be profound. It can quite easily be expounded lucidly in words of one syllable, but then its absurdity becomes obvious.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Men, People

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.396, Psychology Press

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• [There has been] every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Names, People, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.17, Lulu Press, Inc

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• In a just world, there would be no possibility of 'charity'.

  Bertrand Russell

  Would Be, World, Charity

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Mortals and Others, Volume I: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.133, Routledge

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• A man's acts are partly determined by spontaneous impulse, partly by the conscious and unconscious effects of the various groups to which he belongs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Groups, Determined

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Icarus; or, the Future of Science”, p.10, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The sentiments of an adult are compounded of a kernel of instinct surrounded by a vast husk of education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Adults, Opinion, Instinct

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• The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wish, Typical, Causes

  Bertrand Russell (1922). “The problem of China”

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• There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.

  Bertrand Russell

  Doubt, Atheism, Next

  "Kenneth Harris Talking To: Bertrand Russell". 1971.

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• The man who is unhappy will, as a rule, adopt an unhappy creed, while the man who is happy will adopt a happy creed; each may attribute his happiness or unhappiness to his beliefs, while the real causation is the other way round.

  Bertrand Russell

  Real, Men, Unhappy

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

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• Any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, People, Doe

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.89, Lulu Press, Inc

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• One is always a little afraid of love, but above all, one is afraid of pain or causing pain.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pain, Causing Pain, Littles

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• The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, Exercise, Joy

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.63, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Drunkenness is temporary suicide.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suicide, Drinking, Alcohol

  "The Conquest of Happiness". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1930.

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• I was told that The Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, Memories, Regret

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.346, Routledge

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• I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, Christian, Atheist

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

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• In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire those powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils. There is no hope for the world unless power can be tamed, and brought into the service, not of this or that group of fanatical tyrants, but of the whole human race, white and yellow and black, fascist and communist and democrat; for science has made it inevitable that all must live or all must die.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Yellow, White

  "Power: A New Social Analysis". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers, 1938.

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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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• 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.

  Bertrand Russell

  Want, Would Be, Made

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• Worry is a form of fear.

  Bertrand Russell

  Worry, Form

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.43, Lulu Press, Inc

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• I never held Negroes to be inherently inferior. The statement in Marriage and Morals refers to environmental conditioning. I have had it withdrawn from subsequent editions because it is clearly ambiguous.

  Bertrand Russell

  Environmental, Moral, Conditioning

  Bertrand Russell, Barry Feinberg, Ronald Kasrils (1969). “Dear Bertrand Russell ... a selection of his correspondence with the general public, 1950-1968”, Allen & Unwin

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• The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth. I'm not contending in a dogmatic way that there is not a God. What I'm contending is that we don't know that there is. I don't like the word "absolute." I don't think there is anything absolute whatever. The moral law, for example, is always changing. At one period in the development of the human race, almost everybody thought cannibalism was a duty.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Thinking, Law

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• Christ said "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" and when asked "who is thy neighbour? went on to the parable of the Good Samaritan. If you wish to understand this parable as it was understood by his hearers, you should substitute "Germans and Japanese" for Samaritan. I fear my modern day Christians would resent such a substitution, because it would compel them to realize how far they have departed from the teachings of the founder of their religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Teaching, Departed

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