Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 16

• Some people would rather die than think.

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, Education, Thinking

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• I think people who are unhappy are always proud of being so, and therefore do not like to be told that there is nothing grand about their unhappiness. A man who is melancholy because lack of exercise has upset his liver always believes that it is the loss of God, or the menace of Bolshevism, or some such dignified cause that makes him sad. When you tell people that happiness is a simple matter, they get annoyed with you.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Loss, Exercise

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.440, Psychology Press

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• An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, History, Perfection

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.66, 谷月社

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• When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Emotional, Favour

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.31, Bertrand Russell

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• There is no difference between someone who eats too little and sees Heaven and someone who drinks too much and sees snakes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Snakes, Differences, Alcohol

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• These illustrations suggest four general maxims[...]. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to persecute you.

  Bertrand Russell

  Illustration, People, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.68, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The whole of theology, in regard to hell no less than to heaven, takes it for granted that Man is what is of most importance in the Universe of created beings. Since all theologians are men, this postulate has met with little opposition.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Heaven, Littles

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.53, Routledge

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• The man who only loves beautiful things is dreaming, whereas the man who knows absolute beauty is wide awake.

  Bertrand Russell

  Beautiful, Dream, Love Is

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.107, Routledge

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• Unrestricted nationalism is, in the long run, incompatible with world peace.

  Bertrand Russell

  Running, Long, World

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• We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Addiction, Income, Habit

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.113, Psychology Press

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• Ignore fact and reason, live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction, and you will become one of the prophets of your age.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, Age, World

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Mortals and Others, Volume I: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.149, Routledge

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• No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid.

  Bertrand Russell

  Self, Deception, Satisfaction

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.72, Lulu Press, Inc

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• What will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health, if no one remembers how to use them?

  Bertrand Russell

  Use, Leisure, Remember

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.22, Routledge

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• When there are rational grounds for an opinion, people are content to set them forth and wait for them to operate. In such cases, people do not hold their opinions with passion; they hold them calmly, and set forth their reasons quietly. The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Passion, People

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.3, Psychology Press

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• Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Thinking, Wish

  BBC interview on "Face to Face", 1959.

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• Americans and Englishmen, when they become acquainted with the Balkans, feel an astonished contempt when they study the mutual enmities of Bulgarians and Serbs, of Hungarians and Rumanians. It is evident to them that these enmities are absurd and that the belief of each little nation in its own superiority has no objective basis. But most of them are quite unable to see that the national pride of a Great Power is essentially as unjustifiable as that of a little Balkan country.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Pride, Enmity

  Bertrand Russell (1996). “Unpopular Essays”, p.170, Psychology Press

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• The opposition of instinct and reason is mainly illusory. Instinct, intuition, or insight is what first leads to the beliefs which subsequent reason confirms or confutes; but the confirmation, where it is possible, consists, in the last analysis, of agreement with other beliefs no less instinctive. Reason is a harmonizing, controlling force rather than a creative one. Even in the most purely logical realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new.

  Bertrand Russell

  Agreement, Creative, Intuition

  Bertrand Russell (1981). “Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays”, p.17, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent

  Bertrand Russell

  Nature, Civilization, Openness

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.64, Routledge

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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.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Favors, Facts

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.534, Psychology Press

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• Obviousness is always the enemy of correctness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Enemy, Obviousness, Economics

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.48, 谷月社

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• Affection cannot be created; it can only be liberated.

  Bertrand Russell

  Best Love, Affection, Liberated

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.136, Routledge

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• The examination system, and the fact that instruction is treated mainly as a training for a livelihood, leads the young to regard knowledge from a purely utilitarian point of view as the road to money, not as the gateway to wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Science, Views

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.409, Psychology Press

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• Artists are on the average less happy than men of science.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Artist, Average

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.85, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Reason may be a small force, but it is constant, and works always in one direction, while the forces of unreason destroy one another in futile strife.

  Bertrand Russell

  One Direction, May, Reason

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.100, Psychology Press

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• 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

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Feelings, Doubt

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.124, Lulu.com

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