Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 7

• To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future.

  Bertrand Russell

  Funny, Happiness, Laughter

  "The Conquest of Happiness" by Bertrand Russell, (Ch. 13), 1930.

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• An educator should think of a child as a gardener thinks of a plant, as something to be made to grow by having the right soil and the right amount of water. If your roses fail to bloom, it does not occur to you to whip them, but you try to find out what has been amiss in your treatment of them. ... The important thing is what the children do, and not what they do not do. And what they do, if it is to have value, must be a spontaneous expression of their own vital energy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, Teaching, Thinking

  "The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959".

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• Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery, and in such a world hopes could only be irrational.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hope, Misery, Born

  "Unpopular Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, Chapter 3: The Future of Mankind (p. 36), 1950.

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• Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Power, Hatred, Idealism And Realism

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.478, Psychology Press

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• No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

  Bertrand Russell

  Respect, Keeping Secrets, People

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “On Education”, p.50, Routledge

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• It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.

  Bertrand Russell

  Anger, Men, Justice

  Bertrand Russell (1990). “The Art of Philosophizing: and Other Essays”, p.25, Rowman & Littlefield

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• It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Passion, Religion, Evidence

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.63, Routledge

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• Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Greatness, Imagination

  Bertrand Russell (1997). “The Problems of Philosophy”, p.161, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Admit at least one painful truth to yourself every day. Teach yourself to feel that life would still be worth living even if you were not immeasurably superior to all your friends. Exercises of this sort, prolonged through several years, will at last enable you to admit facts without flinching, and will, in so doing, free you from the empire of fear over a very large field.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Years, Empires

  Bertrand Russell (2012). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.173, Routledge

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• Facts have to be discovered by observation, not by reasoning

  Bertrand Russell

  Facts, Observation, Reasoning

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.465, Routledge

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• One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Interesting, Ego

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.146, Routledge

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• Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure.

  Bertrand Russell

  Emotional, Bitterness, Unhappiness

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.173, Routledge

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• Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

  Bertrand Russell

  Power, Men, Religion

  The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine, March 6, 1938.

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• The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

  Bertrand Russell

  Science, Power, Energy

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.4, Psychology Press

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• Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

  Bertrand Russell

  Intelligent, Agreement, Pleasure

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.554, Routledge

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• Too little liberty brings stagnation, and too much brings chaos.

  Bertrand Russell

  Liberty, Littles, Too Much

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Authority and the Individual”, p.44, Routledge

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• That the world is in a bad shape is undeniable, but there is not the faintest reason in history to suppose that Christianity offers a way out.

  Bertrand Russell

  Atheist, World, Shapes

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• I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Philosophy, Believe

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• Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Science, Imagination

  Bertrand Russell (2008). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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• No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he believes to be of value.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Believe, Teaching

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.417, Routledge

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• Drunkeness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suicide, Suicidal, Alcohol

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.11, Lulu Press, Inc

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• I feel life is so small unless it has windows into other worlds.

  Bertrand Russell

  Other Worlds, Life Is, Window

  Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The private years, 1884-1914”, Allen Lane

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• Perhaps the best hope for the future of mankind is that ways will be found of increasing the scope and intensity of sympathy.

  Bertrand Russell

  Way, Found, Intensity

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.455, Routledge

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• To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.

  Bertrand Russell

  Happiness, People, Effort

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.90, Lulu Press, Inc

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• RELIGION: A set of beliefs held as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, going beyond or contrary to evidence, and inculcated by methods which are emotional or authoritarian, not intellectual.

  Bertrand Russell

  God, Emotional, Religion

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.197, Psychology Press

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