Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 23

• I used often to go to America during Prohibition, and there was far more drunkenness there then than before; the prohibition of pornography has much the same effect.

  Bertrand Russell

  America, Prohibition, Used

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

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• To the primitive mind, everything is either friendly or hostile; but experience has shown that friendliness and hostility are not the conceptions by which the world is to be understood.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mind, Friendly, World

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.49, Bertrand Russell

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• Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

  Bertrand Russell

  Clever, Stupid, Men

  "New Hopes for a Changing World". Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158. Book by Bertrand Russell, 1951.

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• A habit of finding pleasure in thought rather than action is a safeguard against unwisdom and excessive love of power, a means of preserving serenity in misfortune and peace of mind among worries. A life confined to what is personal is likely, sooner or later, to become unbearably painful; it is only by windows into a larger and less fretful cosmos that the more tragic parts of life become endurable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mean, Worry, Serenity

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.310, Psychology Press

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• Politics is concerned with herds rather than with individuals, and the passions which are important in politics are, therefore, those in which the various members of a given herd can feel alike.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, Important, Individual

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.172, Routledge

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• If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument... The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ideas, Imagination, Religion

  "Why I Am Not a Christian". "The First-cause Argument". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1927.

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• The power of thought, the vast regions it can master.

  Bertrand Russell

  Masters, Power Of Thought, Regions

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• One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Evil, Growth

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.360, Psychology Press

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• My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true. Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Responsibility, Opportunity

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• There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that "remembered" a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.

  Bertrand Russell

  Past, Atheism, Events

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Analysis of Mind”, p.223, Bertrand Russell

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• Intelligence, it might be said, has caused our troubles; but it is not unintelligence that will cure them. Only more and wiser intelligence can make a happier world

  Bertrand Russell

  World, Might, Trouble

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.220, Psychology Press

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• The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Men, Average

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.427, Psychology Press

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• Our use of the phrase 'The Dark Ages' to cover the period from 600 to 1000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe. [...] From India to Spain, the brilliant civilisation of Islam flourished. What was lost to Christendom at this time was not lost to civilisation, but quite the contrary. [...] To us it seems that West-European civilisation is civilisation, but this is a narrow view.

  Bertrand Russell

  Islamic, Views, Civilization

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.325, Routledge

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• Religions that teach brotherly love have been used as an excuse for persecution, and our profoundest scientific insight is made into a means of mass destruction.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hippie, Mean, Mass Destruction

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.87, Psychology Press

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• If one lived for ever the joys of life would inevitably in the end lose their savour. As it is, they remain perennially fresh.

  Bertrand Russell

  Joy, Ends, Savour

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.16, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The commonest objection to birth control is that it is against nature.

  Bertrand Russell

  Birth Control, Birth, Objections

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

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• Suppose atomic bombs had reduced the population of the world to one brother and sister; should they let the human race die out?

  Bertrand Russell

  Brother, Race, Population

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.47, Routledge

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• The process of philosophizing, to my mind, consists mainly in passing from those obvious, vague, ambiguous things, that we feel quite sure of, to something precise, clear, definite, which by reflection and analysis we find is involved in the vague thing that we start from, and is, so to speak, the real truth of which that vague thing is a sort of shadow.

  Bertrand Russell

  Real, Philosophical, Reflection

  Bertrand Russell (1972). “Russell's Logical atomism”

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• America... where law and custom alike are based upon the dreams of spinsters...

  Bertrand Russell

  Dream, Law, America

  "Marriage and Morals".

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• There are some simple maxims which I think might be commended to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. So, if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end.

  Bertrand Russell

  Simple, Thinking, Long

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.37, Routledge

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• Insight, untested and unsupported, is an uncertain guarantee of the truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Guarantees, Uncertain, Insight

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• At the age of eleven, I began Euclid, with my brother as my tutor. ... I had not imagined that there was anything so delicious in the world. After I had learned the fifth proposition, my brother told me that it was generally considered difficult, but I had found no difficulty whatsoever. This was the first time it had dawned on me that I might have some intelligence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Brother, Science, Age

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.25, Routledge

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• Indemnity for the past and security for the future.

  Bertrand Russell

  Future, Past, Security

  "Memoir of Fox". Book by Siegfried Sassoon, vol. iii, 1928.

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• It is, of course, clear that a country with a large foreign population must endeavour, through its schools, to assimilate the children of immigrants. It is, however, unfortunate that a large part of this process should be effected by means of a somewhat blatant nationalism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Children, Mean

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.135, Psychology Press

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• After ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it generated Neros, Genghis Khans, and Hitlers. This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.

  Bertrand Russell

  Butterfly, Age, Nero

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.459, Psychology Press

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