Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 7

• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.

  Bertrand Russell

  Real, Puppets, Doe

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.652, Routledge

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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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• 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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• 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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• The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wish, Would Be, Leisure

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.26, Lulu Press, Inc

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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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• 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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• There is something feeble, and a little contemptible, about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought, and he therefore cannot carry his own reflection to any logical conclusion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Men, Comforting

  "Human Society in Ethics and Politics".

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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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• If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation do you prefer the grain to the vote?

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Democracy, Bags

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.82, Routledge

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• When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe, but look only and surely at what are the facts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Believe, Wish

  BBC interview on "Face to Face", 1959.

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• I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Atheist, Fear

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

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• I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young, and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Love Life, Ego

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “What I Believe”, p.22, 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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• Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Learning, Shining

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.153, Routledge

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• If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Thinking, Years

  Bertrand Russell (1935). “Religion and science”

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• I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Thinking, Adequate

  Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.440, Psychology Press

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• What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Science, Opposites

  "Sceptical Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda, 1928.

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• Change is one thing, progress is another.

  Bertrand Russell

  Progress, One Thing

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.396, Psychology Press

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• When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.

  Bertrand Russell

  Rocks, Looks, Effects

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