Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 42

• There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them and feel justified in lying to them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Children, Lying

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.177, Simon and Schuster

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• The raw fruits of the earth were made for human sustenance. Even the white tails of rabbits, according to some theologians, have a purpose, namely to make it easier for sportsmen to shoot them. There are, it is true, some inconveniences: lions and tigers are too fierce, the summer is too hot, and the winter too cold. But these things only began after Adam ate the apple; I before that, all animals were vegetarians, and the season was always spring. If only Adam had been content with peaches and nectarines, grapes and pears and pineapples, these blessings would still be ours.

  Bertrand Russell

  Summer, Spring, Winter

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• There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.

  Bertrand Russell

  Funny, Men, Weight Loss

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.370, Routledge

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• The luxury to disparage freedom is the privilege of those who already possess it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Luxury, Privilege, Free Will

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• The more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs.

  Bertrand Russell

  Profound, Religion, Belief

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

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• As for earthquakes, though they were still formidable, they were so interesting that men of science could hardly regret them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Regret, Men, Earthquakes

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.538, Simon and Schuster

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• As men begin to grow civilized, they cease to be satisfied with mere taboos.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Satisfied, Grows

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

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• Sir Arthur Eddington deduces religion from the fact that atoms do not obey the laws of mathematics. Sir James Jeans deduces it from the fact that they do.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Law, Jeans

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.77, Routledge

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• Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found

  Bertrand Russell

  No Respect, Authority, Found

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.553, Routledge

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• Dr. Arnold . . . the admired reformer of public schools, came across some cranks who thought it a mistake to flog boys. Anyone reading his outburst of furious indignation against this opinion will be forced to the conclusion that he enjoyed inflicting floggings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mistake, Reading, School

  Bertrand Russell (1996). “Unpopular Essays”, p.161, Psychology Press

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• Diversity is essential to happiness and in Utopia there is hardly any. This is a defect in all planned social systems.

  Bertrand Russell

  Diversity, Essentials, Investing

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.421, Routledge

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• Force plays a much larger part in the government of the world than it did before 1914, and what is especially alarming, force tends increasingly to fall into the hands of those who are enemies of civilization.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fall, Government, Hands

  Bertrand Russell, Harry Ruja (2014). “Mortals and Others, Volume II: American Essays 1931-1935”, p.27, Routledge

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• Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

  Bertrand Russell

  Discipline, Mind, Willpower

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.26, Routledge

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• It is permissible with certain precautions to speak in print of coitus, but it is not permissible to employ the monosyllabic synonym for this word.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheism, Speak, Precaution

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

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• Humanistic ethics is based on the principle that only humans themselves can determine the criterion for virtue and not an authority transcending us.

  Bertrand Russell

  Principles, Ethics, Virtue

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• In his youth, Wordsworth sympathized with the French Revolution, went to France, wrote good poetry and had a natural daughter. At this period, he was a bad man. Then he became good, abandoned his daughter, adopted correct principles and wrote bad poetry.

  Bertrand Russell

  Daughter, Men, Poetry

  Bertrand Russell (1960). “Sceptical Essays”

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• To write tragedy, a man must feel tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he lives. Not only with his mind, but with his blood and sinews.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing, Men, Blood

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.23, Lulu Press, Inc

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• History is valuable, to begin with, because it is true; and this, though not the whole of its value, is the foundation and condition of all the rest. That all knowledge, as such, is in some degree good, would appear to be at least probable; and the knowledge of every historical fact possesses this element of goodness, even if it posses no other.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Historical, Facts

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “Contemplation and Action, 1902-14”, p.76, Psychology Press

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• When conscious activity is wholly concentrated on some one definite purpose, the ultimate result, for most people, is lack of balance accompanied by some form of nervous disorder.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Focus, Balance

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.22, Psychology Press

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• The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Excellence, Exaltation

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.229, Routledge

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• The use of force stands in need of control by a public neutral authority, in the interests of liberty no less than of justice. Within a nation, this public authority will naturally be the state; in relations between nations, if the present anarchy is to cease, it will have to be some international parliament.

  Bertrand Russell

  Justice, Liberty, Needs

  Bertrand Russell (2006). “Political Ideals”, p.73, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Remote from human passions, remote even from the pitiful facts of nature, the generations have gradually created an ordered cosmos [mathematics], where pure thought can dwell in its natural home.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, Home, Cosmos

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “Mysticism and Logic”, p.94, Bertrand Russell

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• As I grew up I became increasingly interested in philosophy, or which [his family] profoundly disapproved. Everytime the subject came up they repeated with unfailing regularity, "What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind." After some fifty or sixty repititions, this remark ceased to amuse me.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Mind, Fifty

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• War...seems a mere madness, a collective insanity.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Insanity, Madness

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• Calculus required continuity, and continuity was supposed to require the infinitely little; but nobody could discover what the infinitely little might be.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Littles, Statistics

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.51, 谷月社

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