Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 37

• I can't tell whether I am living in a dream or a nightmare.

  Bertrand Russell

  Dream, Nightmare, I Can

  5 Copy quote

• The Mormons had a divine revelation in favour of polygamy, but under pressure from the United States Government they discovered that the revelation was not binding.

  Bertrand Russell

  Government, United States, Divine Revelation

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.51, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• Opinions which justify cruelty are inspired by cruel impulses.

  Bertrand Russell

  Opinion, Inspired, Cruelty

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.144, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• Even in the most purely logical realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspiration, Firsts, Logical

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.22, Bertrand Russell

  7 Copy quote

• Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Boredom, Half

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 4

  16 Copy quote

• In a logically perfect language, there will be one word and no more for every simple object, and everything that is not simple will be expressed by a combination of words, by a combination derived, of course, from the words for the simple things that enter in, one word for each simple component.

  Bertrand Russell

  Simple, Perfect, Language

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”, p.25, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• In all the creative work that I have done, what has come first is a problem, a puzzle involving discomfort.

  Bertrand Russell

  Creative, Done, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• Education ought to foster the wish for truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Wish, Politics

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.406, Psychology Press

  4 Copy quote

• For some reason which I have failed to understand, many people like the system [scientific totalitarianism] when it is Russian but disliked the very same system when it was German. I am compelled to think that this is due to the power of labels; these people like whatever is labelled ‘Left’ without examining whether the label has any justification.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, People, Labels

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.40, Routledge

  9 Copy quote

• It is one of the defects of modern higher education that it has become too much a training in the acquisition of certain kinds of skill, and too little an enlargement of the mind and heart by an impartial survey of the world.

  Bertrand Russell

  Heart, Skills, Training

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.131, Lulu Press, Inc

  9 Copy quote

• I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology.... Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called 'education.' Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part.... It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Play, Psychology

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.27, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• It was the duty of wives to submit to husbands, not of husbands to submit to wives. . . men have stronger muscles than women.

  Bertrand Russell

  Husband, Men, Wife

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.22, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• no one ever gossips about the virtues of others

  Bertrand Russell

  Gossip, Virtue

  8 Copy quote

• The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wise, Wisdom, Civilization

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.10, Lulu Press, Inc

  4 Copy quote

• What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it's easy to have glory without power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Vanity, Needs, Satisfaction

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

  4 Copy quote

• Psychology often becomes the disease of which it should be the cure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Psychology, Disease, Should

  4 Copy quote

• Ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Gun, Metaphysical, Ironclads

  Bertrand Russell (1994). “Philosophical Essays”, p.109, Psychology Press

  8 Copy quote

• I am looking forward very much to getting back to Cambridge, and being able to say what I think and not to mean what I say: two things which at home are impossible. Cambridge is one of the few places where one can talk unlimited nonsense and generalities without anyone pulling one up or confronting one with them when one says just the opposite the next day.

  Bertrand Russell

  Home, Mean, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.25, Psychology Press

  9 Copy quote

• It seems clear to me that marriage ought to be constituted by children, and relations not involving children ought to be ignored by the law and treated as indifferent by public opinion. It is only through children that relations cease to be a purely private matter.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Law, Public Opinion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.270, Routledge

  4 Copy quote

• The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities.

  Bertrand Russell

  Construction, Logical, Entity

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.234, Bertrand Russell

  4 Copy quote

• To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.

  Bertrand Russell

  Shoes, Choices, Pairs

  "Weighing the Odds: A Course in Probability and Statistics". Book by David Williams, p. 498, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

• Only six need be attempted.

  Bertrand Russell

  Six, Needs, Humour

  4 Copy quote

• The essence of education is that it is a change effected in the organism to satisfy the operator.

  Bertrand Russell

  Art, Philosophy, Essence

  4 Copy quote

• Any philosophy worth taking seriously would have to be built upon a firm foundation of unyielding despair.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Despair, Foundation

  7 Copy quote

• If everything has a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just be the world as God.

  Bertrand Russell

  Religion, World, May

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.183, Psychology Press

  12 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Gottlob Frege

Alfred North Whitehead

David Hume

Russell Crowe

G. H. Hardy

Immanuel Kant

Jean-Paul Sartre