Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 39

• I do not think any reasonable person can doubt that in India, China and Japan, if the knowledge of birth control existed, the birthrate would fall very rapidly

  Bertrand Russell

  Fall, Thinking, Japan

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.706, Psychology Press

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• He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness of human life, he will realize also that in individual minds is concentrated whatever of value the known universe contains.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mind, World, Realizing

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.133, Lulu Press, Inc

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• When we have told how things behave when they are electrified, and under what circumstances they are electrified, we have told all there is to know

  Bertrand Russell

  Circumstances, Behave, Knows

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• Africans had to be taught that nudity is wicked; this was done very cheaply by missionaries.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wicked, Done, Taught

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Impact of Science on Society”, p.20, Routledge

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• I suggest to young professors that their first work should be written in a jargon only to be understood by the erudite few. With that behind them, they can ever after say what they have to say in a language 'understand of the people.'

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Jargon, Firsts

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.66, Routledge

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• Shakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].

  Bertrand Russell

  Giving, Doe, Delight

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• The doctrine (of) maintaining that the language of daily life, with words used in their ordinary meanings, suffices for philosophy . . . I find myself totally unable to accept . . . . Because it makes almost inevitable the perpetuation amongst philosophers of the muddle-headedness they have taken over from common sense.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Taken, Common Sense

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• The Stoic assures us that what is happening now will happen over and over again. [If so, Providende would] ultimately grow weary through despair.

  Bertrand Russell

  Despair, Stoic, Grows

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• The teaching of Christ, as it appears in the Gospels, has had extraordinarily little to do with the ethics of Christians.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Teaching, Littles

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.50, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The white tails of rabbits, according to some theologians, have a purpose, namely to make it easier for sportsmen to shoot them.

  Bertrand Russell

  White, Rabbits, Tails

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.53, Routledge

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• Those who advocate common usage in philosophy sometimes speak in a manner that suggests the mystique of the 'common man.'

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Men, Common

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.66, Routledge

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• Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit.

  Bertrand Russell

  Privilege, Habit, Institutions

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.96, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Tobacco . . . is not prohibited in the Scriptures, though, as Samuel Butler points out, St. Paul would no doubt have denounced it if he had known of it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Doubt, Scripture, Butlers

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.50, Routledge

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• Vanity is a motive of immense potency.

  Bertrand Russell

  Vanity, Potency, Motive

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

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• We have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Age, Praise

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.73, Routledge

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• Science has made unrestricted national sovereignty incompatible with human survival. The only possibilities are now world government or death.

  Bertrand Russell

  World Government, Survival, Possibility

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• To discover a system for the avoidance of war is a vital need of our civilisation.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Needs, Civilisation

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.6, Lulu Press, Inc

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• While I am as convinced a Socialist as the most ardent Marxian, I do not regard Socialism as a gospel of proletarian revenge, nor even, primarily, as a means of securing economic justice. I regard it primarily as an adjustment to machine production demanded by considerations of common sense, and calculated to increase the happiness, not only of proletarians, but of all except a tiny minority of the human race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Revenge, Mean, Race

  Bertrand Russell, Kenneth Blackwell (2008). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell”

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• Each act of cruelty is eternally a part of the universe; nothing that happens later can make that act good rather than bad, or can confer perfection on the whole of which it is a part.

  Bertrand Russell

  Perfection, Cruelty, Whole

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.467, Routledge

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• Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle.

  Bertrand Russell

  Struggle, Quality, Needs

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.1, Lulu Press, Inc

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• It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Natural, Attributes, Propensity

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.113, Psychology Press

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• We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Depressing, Hate, Thinking

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

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• The first effect of emancipation from the Church was not to make men think rationally, but to open their minds to every sort of antique nonsense

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Thinking, Mind

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

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• Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don't know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spring, Long, Great Love

  Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.46, Psychology Press

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• I believe that Communism is necessary to the world, and I believe that the heroism of Russia has fired men's hopes in a way which was essential to the realization of Communism in the future. Regarded as a splendid attempt, without which ultimate success would have been very improbable, Bolshevism deserves the gratitude and admiration of all the progressive part of mankind.

  Bertrand Russell

  Gratitude, Believe, Men

  Bertrand Russell (1972). “Bolshevism: practice and theory”, Ayer Co Pub

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