Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 46

• It appeared that after first contemplating a book on some subject, and after giving serious preliminary attention to it, I needed a period of subconscious incubation which could not be hurried and was if anything impeded by deliberate thinking.... Having, by a time of very intense concentration, planted the problem in my subconsciousness, it would germinate underground until, suddenly, the solution emerged with a blinding clarity, so that it only remained to write down what happened as if in a revelation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things : That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave

  Bertrand Russell

  Alive, Slave, Feds

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.115, Routledge

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• All that passes for knowledge can be arranged in a hierarchy of degrees of certainty, with arithmetic and the facts of perception at the top.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Science, Perception

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.380, Psychology Press

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• The atomic bomb embodies the results of a combination genius and patience as remarkable as any in the history of mankind.

  Bertrand Russell

  Genius, Bombs, Atomic Bomb

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• Some `advanced thinkers' are of the opinion that anyone who differs from the conventional opinion must be in the right. This is a delusion; if it were not, truth would be easier to come by than it is.

  Bertrand Russell

  Would Be, Opinion, Easier

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.62, Routledge

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• The argument against the persecution of opinion does not depend upon what the excuse for persecution may be. The argument is that we none of us know all truth, that the discovery of new truth is promoted by free discussion and rendered very difficult by suppression.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Discovery, Doe

  Bertrand Russell (1935). “Religion and science”

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• A fanatical belief in democracy makes democratic institutions impossible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Democracy, Belief, Impossible

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.400, Psychology Press

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• The best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Race, Majority

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.319, Psychology Press

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• The tendency of our perceptions is to emphasise increasingly the objective elements in an impression, unless we have some special reason, as artists have, for doing the opposite.

  Bertrand Russell

  Artist, Opposites, Perception

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “An Outline of Philosophy”, p.168, Routledge

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• The above proposition is occasionally useful.

  Bertrand Russell

  Propositions

  On the proof that 1+1=2. "Principia Mathematica". Book by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, 1st edition, p. 86, 1912.

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• ... the word "theory" ... was originally an Orphic word, which Cornford interprets as "passionate sympathetic contemplation" ... For Pythagoras, the "passionate sympathetic contemplation" was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge ... To those who have reluctantly learnt a little mathematics in school this may seem strange; but to those who have experienced the intoxicating delight of sudden understanding that mathematics gives, from time to time, to those who love it, the Pythagorean view will seem completely natural.

  Bertrand Russell

  School, Views, Giving

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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• Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Matter, Merit, Existence

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.14, Bertrand Russell

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• America remained a land of promise for lovers of freedom. Even Byron, at a moment when he was disgusted with Napoleon for not committing suicide, wrote an eloquent stanza in praise of Washington.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suicide, Land, America

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.11, Routledge

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• The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.

  Bertrand Russell

  Responsibility, Government, Political

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

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• To the young I should offer two maxims: Don't accept superficial solutions of difficult problems. It is better to do a little good than much harm. I should not offer anything more specific; every young person should decide on his or her own credo.

  Bertrand Russell

  Two, Littles, Youth

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• We shall say that we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference of any knowledge of truths.

  Bertrand Russell

  Language, Inference, Process

  Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.60, Bertrand Russell

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• In astronomy, the law of gravitation is plainly better worth knowing than the position of a particular planet on a particular night, or even on every night throughout a year. There are in the law a splendour and simplicity and sense of mastery which illuminate a mass of otherwise uninteresting details. But in history the matter is far otherwise. Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mean, Science, Night

  "On History". The Independent Review 3, pp. 207-215, users.drew.edu. July 1904.

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• Skilled work, of no matter what kind, is only done well by those who take a certain pleasure in it, quite apart from its utility, either to themselves in earning a living, or to the world through its outcome.

  Bertrand Russell

  Work, Done, World

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• Morally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treachery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Use, Professional Competence, Philosopher

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.835, Simon and Schuster

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• Aristotle and Plato considered Greeks so innately superior to barbarians that slavery is justified so long as the master is Greek and the slave barbarian.

  Bertrand Russell

  Plato, Long, Greek

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.56, Routledge

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• European travellers find the Japanese a smiling race.

  Bertrand Russell

  Race, Traveller

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.88, Routledge

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• Measures of sterilization should, in my opinion, be very definitely confined to persons who are mentally defective

  Bertrand Russell

  Opinion, Sterilization, Should

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Bertrand Russell's best: silhouettes in satire”, Allen & Unwin

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• Logic must no more admit a unicorn than zoology can.

  Bertrand Russell

  Unicorn, Logic, Zoology

  Bertrand Russell (2007). “Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy”, p.169, Spokesman Books

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• A life which goes excessively against natural impulse is... likely to involve effects of strain that may be quite as bad as indulgence in forbidden impulses would have been. People who live a life which is unnatural beyond a point are likely to be filled with envy, malice and uncharitableness.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Envy, May

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Authority and the Individual”, p.8, Routledge

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• Every sane and sensible and quiet thing we do is absolutely ignored by the press.

  Bertrand Russell

  Ignored, Quiet, Sensible

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