Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 36

• Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favour of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, War, Pestilence

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

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• Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of political events.

  Bertrand Russell

  Political, Desire, Events

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.447, Routledge

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• It is impossible to read in America, except on a train, because of the telephone. Everyone has a telephone, and it rings all day and most of the night.

  Bertrand Russell

  Book, Reading, Night

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• One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about.

  Bertrand Russell

  Vanity, Wish, Trouble

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.448, Routledge

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• It is obviously possible that what we call waking life may only be an unusual and persistent nightmare.

  Bertrand Russell

  Waking Life, May, Nightmare

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• Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ignorance, Knowledge, Right Conduct

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.58, Routledge

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• Science, in its ultimate ideal, consists of a set of propositions arranged in a hierarchy, the lowest level of the hierarchy being concerned with particular facts, and the highest with some general law, governing everything in the universe. The various levels in the hierarchy have a two-fold logical connection, travelling one up, one down; the upward connection proceeds by induction, the downward by deduction.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Law, Two

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.38, Routledge

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• Philosophy is that part of science which at present people chose to have opinions about, but which they have no knowledge about. Therefore every advance in knowledge robs philosophy of some problems which formerly it had ...and will belong to science.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Knowledge, Science

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, p.124, Routledge

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• Nothing of importance is ever achieved without discipline. I feel myself sometimes not wholly in sympathy with some modern educational theorists, because I think that they underestimate the part that discipline plays. But the discipline you have in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by society or authority.

  Bertrand Russell

  Educational, Thinking, Play

  Bertrand Russell (1987). “Bertrand Russell on ethics, sex, and marriage”

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• In the first place a philosophical proposition must be general. It must not deal specially with things on the surface of the earth, or within the solar system, or with any other portion of space and time. . . . This brings us to a second characteristic of philosophical propositions, namely that they must be a priori. A philosophical proposition must be such as can neither be proved nor disproved by empirical evidence. . . . Philosophy, if what has been said is correct, becomes indistinguishable from logic as that word has now come to be used.

  Bertrand Russell

  Time, Philosophy, Philosophical

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• Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of great importance.

  Bertrand Russell

  Littles, Forget, Importance

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.2, Routledge

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• Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the lure of popularity, to pursue important work in spite of general indifference or hostility, and arrive at opinions which are opposed to prevalent errors.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Errors, Solitude

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.37, Routledge

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• ... the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.

  Bertrand Russell

  Pain, Loneliness, World

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.9, Routledge

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• The reason is, and by rights ought to be, slave to the emotions.

  Bertrand Russell

  Rights, Emotion, Slave

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• Adventurous men enjoy shipwrecks, mutinies, earthquakes, conflagrations, and all kinds of unpleasant experiences. They say to themselves, for example, 'So this is what an earthquake is like,' and it gives them pleasure to have their knowledge of the world increased by this new item.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Earthquakes, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.114, Routledge

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• I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of WORK, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in the organised diminution of work.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Done, World

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.3, Psychology Press

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• Envy ... is one form of a vice, partly moral, partly intellectual, which consists in seeing things never in themselves but only in their relations.

  Bertrand Russell

  Envy, Intellectual, Vices

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.50, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Americans need rest, but do not know it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Needs, Knows

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.146, Psychology Press

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• A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Men, Wit

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• Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Hopeless, Whole

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.166, Routledge

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• The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Skills, Satisfaction

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.104, Routledge

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• Do not feel certain of anything.

  Bertrand Russell

  Certain, Feels

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• Literature is inexhaustible, with every book a homage to infinity

  Bertrand Russell

  Book, Literature, Infinity

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• Frege has the merit of ... finding a third assertion by recognising the world of logic which is neither mental nor physical.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, World, Merit

  Bertrand Russell (1929). “Our Knowledge of the External World”, New York, Norton

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• I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suicide, Math, Commit

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.38, Psychology Press

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