Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 6

• Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.

  Bertrand Russell

  Peace, War, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.276, Routledge

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• The very best proof that something can be done is that someone has already done it.

  Bertrand Russell

  Done, Proof

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• Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.

  Bertrand Russell

  Writing

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• The man who pursues happiness wisely will aim at the possession of a number of subsidiary interests in addition to those central ones upon which his life is built.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Numbers, Life Is

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.134, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

  Bertrand Russell

  Love, Powerful, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.10, Lulu Press, Inc

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• One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Passion, Desire

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.66, Psychology Press

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• Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Hippie, Patriotic

  Bertrand Russell (1962). “Has Man a Future?”

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• If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wish, Seeing, Ifs

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.97, Routledge

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• What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices.

  Bertrand Russell

  Time, Prejudice, Authority

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell Volume 29: Détente or Destruction, 1955-57”, p.152, Routledge

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• Curious learning not only makes unpleasant things less unpleasant but also makes pleasant things more pleasant.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Curious, Pleasant

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.303, Psychology Press

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• True happiness for human beings is possible only to those who develop their godlike potentialities to the utmost.

  Bertrand Russell

  True Happiness, Godlike, Humans

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.238, Routledge

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• Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

  Bertrand Russell

  God, Punishment, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.257, Psychology Press

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• We must be skeptical even of our skepticism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Skepticism, Skeptical

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• If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christmas, Work, Holiday

  Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 5

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• Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

  Bertrand Russell

  Fear, Science, Infancy Is

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• To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Success, Wisdom

  Unpopular Essays (1950) "Outline of Intellectual Rubbish"

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• I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race—I am ashamed to belong to such a species.

  Bertrand Russell

  Father, Hate, Pride

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.289, Routledge

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• Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Liberty, Principles

  Bertrand Russell (1960). “Sceptical Essays”

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• None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.

  Bertrand Russell

  Errors, Vagueness, Belief

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.129, Psychology Press

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• Faith: a firm belief for which there is no evidence.

  Bertrand Russell

  Belief, Firm Beliefs, Evidence

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• Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster.

  Bertrand Russell

  Way, Disaster, Increase

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.54, Routledge

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• Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Clever, Stupid, Men

  "New Hopes for a Changing World". Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158. Book by Bertrand Russell, 1951.

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• Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.

  Bertrand Russell

  Marriage, Sex, Feminist

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Marriage and Morals”, p.94, Routledge

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• It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spring, Desire, Essentials

  Bertrand Russell (1975). “The conquest of happiness”

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• Democracy has at least one merit, namely that a Member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the more stupid they were to elect him.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Democracies Have, Democracy

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.66, Routledge

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