Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 9

• We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophical, Science, Engineering

  Bertrand Russell (1985). “The ABC of relativity”, Signet

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• And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence

  Bertrand Russell

  Death, God, Spiritual

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.554, Psychology Press

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• One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Ignorance, Imagination

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.676, Routledge

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• The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Christian, Fear, Views

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• For love of domination we must substitute equality; for love of victory we must substitute justice; for brutality we must substitute intelligence; for competition we must substitute cooperation. We must learn to think of the human race as one family.

  Bertrand Russell

  Equality, Thinking, Race

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• The teacher, like the artist, the philosopher, and the man of letters, can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority.

  Bertrand Russell

  Teacher, Artist, Creative

  "The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell".

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• The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

  Bertrand Russell

  Children, War, Teaching

  "Why I Am Not a Christian".

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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. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can only be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Enemy, Suffering

  "The Science to Save Us from Science". The New York Times Magazine, March 19, 1950.

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• All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Science, Ideas

  Bertrand Russell (2001). “The Scientific Outlook”, p.45, Psychology Press

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• I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Happiness, Gratitude

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• Escape from boredom is one of the really powerful desires of almost all human beings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Powerful, Boredom, Desire

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.3, Routledge

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• It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you.

  Bertrand Russell

  Famous Love, Falling In Love, New Relationship

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• What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knowledge, Men, Want

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• Many a marriage hardly differs from prostitution, except being harder to escape from.

  Bertrand Russell

  Marriage, Prostitution, Harder

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Roads to Freedom”, p.150, Routledge

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• We need a science to save us from science.

  Bertrand Russell

  Needs

  "High Points in the Work of the High Schools of New York City, Vol. 34". Book edited by Board of Education, p. 46, quoting "NY Times Magazine", 1952.

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• In democratic countries, the most important private organizations are economic. Unlike secret societies, they are able to exercise their terrorism without illegality, since they do not threaten to kill their enemies, but only to starve them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Exercise, Organization

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• When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue, because, as men of science, they know that neither is infallible. But when two theologians differ, since there is no criteria to which either can appeal, there is nothing for it but mutual hatred and an open or covert appeal to force.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Two, Issues

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.198, Simon and Schuster

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• What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.

  Bertrand Russell

  Balance, Atheism, Unhappy

  Bertrand Russell (1944). “The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery”

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• There are infinite possibilities of error, and more cranks take up fashionable untruths than unfashionable truths.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Science, Errors

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• What hunger is in relation to food, zest is in relation to life.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Food, Zest

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.91, Lulu Press, Inc

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• I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step toward any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another.

  Bertrand Russell

  Believe, Land, World

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “Proposed Roads to Freedom”, p.112, Booklassic

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• Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

  Bertrand Russell

  Life, Happiness, Procrastination

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.40, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine.

  Bertrand Russell

  Laughter, Medicine, Drug

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• My sad conviction is that people can only agree about what they're not really interested in.

  Bertrand Russell

  Agreement, People, Conviction

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• A widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Belief, Foolish

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