Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 26

• You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so called age of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with its tortures; there were millions of unfortunate women burnt as witches; and there was every kind of cruelty practised upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Believe, Men

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• My own belief is that in most ages and in most places obscure psychological forces led men to adopt systems involving quite unnecessary cruelty, and that this is still the case among the most civilized races at the present day.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Race, Age

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.11, Routledge

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• I hold all knowledge that is concerned with things that actually exist - all that is commonly called Science - to be of very slight value compared to the knowledge which, like philosophy and mathematics, is concerned with ideal and eternal objects, and is freed from this miserable world which God has made.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Knowledge, World

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

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• The resistance to a new idea increases by the square of its importance.

  Bertrand Russell

  Squares, Ideas, Resistance

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• I did not know I loved you until I heard myself telling so, for one instance I thought, "Good God, what have I said?" and then I knew it was true.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Good God, Said

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• The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Night, Men

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

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• A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Men, Progress

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.171, Psychology Press

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• The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Believe, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Mortals and Others, Volume II: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.28, Routledge

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• One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his or her work important.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Holiday, Men

  'The Conquest of Happiness' (1930) ch. 5

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• On the one hand, philosophy is to keep us thinking about things that we may come to know, and on the other hand to keep us modestly aware of how much that seems like knowledge isn't knowledge

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Thinking, Hands

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

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• Although it is a gloomy view to suppose that life will die out, sometimes when I contemplate the things that people do with their lives I think it is almost a consolation

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Views, People

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.185, Psychology Press

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• Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely.

  Bertrand Russell

  Power, Vanity, Omnipotence

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.449, Routledge

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• To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Democracy, Citizens, Importance

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.660, Routledge

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• If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.

  Bertrand Russell

  Giving, Able, Infinity

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays”, p.77, Booklassic

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• It is for this reason that rationality is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species...even more, in those less fortunate times in which it is despised and rejected as the vain dream of men who lack the virility to kill where they cannot agree.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dream, Men, Reason

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• I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Addiction, Progress

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.28, Psychology Press

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• I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of that joy. ... I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Heaven, Vision

  "Bertrand Russell's Best".

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• It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. ...It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Believe, Adventure

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.95, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Ordinary language is totally unsuited for expressing what physics really asserts, since the words of everyday life are not sufficiently abstract. Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Mean, Math

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.626, Psychology Press

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• I read Zuleika Dobson with pleasure. It represents the Oxford that the two World Wars have destroyed with a charm that is not likely to be reproduced anywhere in the world for the next thousand years.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Years, Oxford

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• To modern educated people, it seems obvious that matters of fact are to be ascertained by observation, not by consulting ancient authorities. But this is an entirely modern conception, which hardly existed before the seventeenth century.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Matter, Facts

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.6, Routledge

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• Man can be scientifically manipulated.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.61, Routledge

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• Hitler is an outcome of Rousseau.

  Bertrand Russell

  Outcomes

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.551, Routledge

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• Science is no substitute for virtue; the heart is as necessary for a good life as the head.

  Bertrand Russell

  Good Life, Heart, Virtue

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Icarus; or, the Future of Science”, p.20, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, May, Philosopher

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