Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 30

• The world that I should wish to see would be one freed from the virulence of group hostilities and capable of realizing that happiness for all is to be derived rather from co-operation than from strife. I should wish to see a world in which education aimed at mental freedom rather than imprisoning the minds of the young in rigid armor of dogma calculated to protect them through life against the shafts of impartial evidence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mind, Wish, Armor

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• Joy of life... depends upon a certain spontaneity in regard to sex. Where sex is repressed, only work remains, and a gospel of work for work's sake never produced any work worth doing.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sex, Joy, Sake

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.330, Routledge

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• Citizens as conceived by governments are persons who admire the status quo and are prepared to exert themselves for its preservation. Oddly enough, while all governments aim at producing men of this type to the exclusion of all other types, their heroes in the past are of exactly the sort that they aim at preventing in the present. Americans admire George Washington and Jefferson, but imprison those who share their political opinions.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hero, Men, Past

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.11, Routledge

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• I suppose the advocates of unreason think that there is a better chance of profitably deceiving the populace if they keep it in a state of effervescence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Chance, Deceiving

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.425, Psychology Press

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• A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Wish, Patient

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 10

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• St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.

  Bertrand Russell

  Marriage, Views, Cake

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• No Carthaginian denied Moloch, because to do so would have required more courage that was required to face death in battle.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religion, Battle, Faces

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.70, Routledge

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• There are two ways of avoiding fear: one is by persuading ourselves that we are immune from disaster, and the other is by the practice of sheer courage. The latter is difficult, and to everybody becomes impossible at a certain point. The former has therefore always been more popular. Primitive magic has the purpose of securing safety, either by injuring enemies, or by protecting oneself by talismans, spells, or incantations.

  Bertrand Russell

  Practice, Two, Safety

  Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

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• The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Christian, Kindness

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• The first man who said "fire burns" was employing scientific method, at any rate if he had allowed himself to be burnt several times. This man had already passed through the two stages of observation and generalization. He had not, however, what scientific technique demands - a careful choice of significant facts on the one hand, and, on the other hand, various means of arriving at laws otherwise than my mere generalization.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mean, Science, Men

  "The Scientific Outlook".

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• Formality Thus the absence of all mention of particular things or properties in logic or pure mathematics is a necessary result of the fact that this study is, as we say, "purely formal".

  Bertrand Russell

  Facts, Logic, Study

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• We may say, in a broad way, that Greek philosophy down to Aristotle expresses the mentality appropriate to the City State; that Stoicism is appropriate to a cosmopolitan despotism; that stochastic philosophy is an intellectual expression of the Church as an organization; that philosophy since Descartes, or at any rate since Locke, tends to embody the prejudices of the commercial middle class; and that Marxism and Fascism are the philosophies appropriate to the modern industrial state.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Expression, Class

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• The question of "unreality"is a very important one. Misled by grammar, the great majority of those logicians who have dealt with this question have dealt with it on mistaken lines. They have regarded grammatical form as a surer guide in analysis than, in fact, it is. And they have not known what differences in grammatical form are important.

  Bertrand Russell

  Reality, Differences, Important

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy”, p.168, Courier Corporation

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• Protestants, from the first, have been distinguished from their opponents by what they do not believe; to throw over one more dogma is, therefore, merely to carry the movement one stage further. Moral fervor is the essence of the matter.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Essence, Movement

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.119, Simon and Schuster

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• I cannot favour laws such as that of Idaho, which allows sterilization of 'mental defectives, epileptics, habitual criminals, moral degenerates, and sex perverts.' The last two categories here are very vague . . . The law of Idaho would have justified the sterilization of Socrates, Plato, Julius Caesar, and St. Paul.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sex, Plato, Law

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.102, Routledge

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• Perhaps the nuclear physicists have come so near to the ultimate secrets that He thinks it time to bring their activities to a stop. And what simpler method could He devise than to let them carry their ingenuity to the point where they exterminate the human race?

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Race, Secret

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.131, Routledge

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• [There are m]oral precepts that we consider really important, such as 'don't pick your nose' or 'don't eat peas with a knife'. There may, for ought I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but . . . early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knives, Appreciate, Important

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.221, Psychology Press

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• There is in Aristotle an almost complete absence of what may be called benevolence or philanthropy. The sufferings of mankind . . . there is no evidence that they cause him unhappiness except when the sufferers happen to be his friends.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suffering, May, Causes

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.177, Routledge

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• There was a law in Connecticut - I believe it is still formally unrepealed - making it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Sunday, Kissing

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.30, Routledge

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• Thomas Aquinas states parenthetically, as something entirely obvious, that men are more rational than women. For my part, I see no evidence of this.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, States, Obvious

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.154, Routledge

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• We ought to look the world frankly in the face.

  Bertrand Russell

  Looks, World, Faces

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.193, Psychology Press

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• Philosophy is an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Thinking, Ingenious

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.336, Psychology Press

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• Answering questions is a major part of sex education. Two rules cover the ground. First, always give a truthful answer to a question; secondly, regard sex knowledge as exactly like any other knowledge.

  Bertrand Russell

  Sex, Two, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.140, Routledge

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• I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lakes, Cities, Tea

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.407, Routledge

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• It is amusing to hear the modern Christian telling you how mild and rationalistic Christianity really is and ignoring the fact that all its mildness and rationalism is due to the teaching of men who in their own day were persecuted by all orthodox Christians.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Teaching, Men

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.221, Psychology Press

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