Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 21

• Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth

  Bertrand Russell

  Platitudes

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.66, Routledge

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• Ants and savages put strangers to death.

  Bertrand Russell

  Savages, Ants, Stranger

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.113, Routledge

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• Gradually, ... the aspect of science as knowledge is being thrust into the background by the aspect of science as the power of manipulating nature. It is because science gives us the power of manipulating nature that it has more social importance than art. Science as the pursuit of truth is the equal, but not the superior, of art. Science as a technique, though it may have little intrinsic value, has a practical importance to which art cannot aspire.

  Bertrand Russell

  Art, Knowledge, Science

  Bertrand Russell (2017). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.16, Routledge

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• Science seems to be at war with itself.... Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Science, Technology

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• The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Men, Instinct

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• When a man acts in ways that annoy us we wish to think him wicked, and we refuse to face the fact that his annoying behavior is the result of antecedent causes which, if you follow them long enough, will take you beyond the moment of his birth, and therefore to events for which he cannot be held responsible by any stretch of imagination... When a motorcar fails to start, we do not attribute its annoying behavior to sin, we do not say, you are a wicked motorcar, and you shall not have any more gasoline until you go.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Men, Long

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• If the Church is not now as bad as the Soviet Government, that is due to the influence of those who attacked the Church

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, Church, Influence

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.216, Psychology Press

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• Science, by itself cannot, supply us with an ethic.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ethics, Morality

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• Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.

  Bertrand Russell

  Elderly, Umpires, Ignorant

  Look Magazine, February 23, 1954.

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• Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.

  Bertrand Russell

  Privilege, Revolutionary, Habit

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Why Men Fight”, p.107, Routledge

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• Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Philosophy, Asking Questions

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.18, Bertrand Russell

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• The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Religion, Ordinary

  Sceptical Essays

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• This illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise.

  Bertrand Russell

  Giving, Interesting, Important

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.674, Routledge

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• None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Fear, Coward

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• To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Birthday, Educational, Philosophy

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

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• Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.

  Bertrand Russell

  Freedom, Fear, Desire

  Bertrand Russell (1996). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell: A Fresh Look at Empiricism 1927-42”

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• All movements go too far.

  Bertrand Russell

  Change, Movement, Belief

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.71, Routledge

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• It appeared to me that the dignity of which human existence is capable is not attainable by devotion to the mechanism of life , and that unless contemplation of eternal things is preserved, mankind will become no better than well-fed pigs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pigs, Dignity, Devotion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.149, Routledge

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• It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Men, Intuition

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.527, Simon and Schuster

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• That which exists through itself is called The Eternal. The Eternal has neither name nor shape. It is the one essence, the one primal spirit. Essence and life cannot be seen. They are contained in the light of heaven. The light of heaven cannot be seen. It is contained in the two eyes.

  Bertrand Russell

  Eye, Light, Essence

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• Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Firsts, Opinion, Aspect

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

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• The axiomatic method has many advantages over honest work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Honest, Advantage, Method

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• Orthodoxy is the death of intelligence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Orthodoxy

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• A man is rational in proportion as his intelligence informs and controls his desires.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Desire, Proportion

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.39, Psychology Press

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• If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind, generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.

  Bertrand Russell

  Kings, Parent, Disrespect

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.27, Routledge

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