Bertrand Russell Quotes

Thomas Aquinas states parenthetically, as something entirely obvious, that men are more rational than women. For my part, I see no evidence of this.

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

The man who only loves beautiful things is dreaming, whereas the man who knows absolute beauty is wide awake.

There are certain things that our age needs. It needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse to creativeness.

No Carthaginian denied Moloch, because to do so would have required more courage that was required to face death in battle.

The . . . increase in the power of officials is a constant source of irritation to everybody else.

There was a law in Connecticut - I believe it is still formally unrepealed - making it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday.

I suppose the advocates of unreason think that there is a better chance of profitably deceiving the populace if they keep it in a state of effervescence.

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

I consider the official Catholic attitude on divorce, birth control, and censorship exceedingly dangerous to mankind.

No man is liberated from fear who dare not see his place in the world as it is; no man can achieve the greatness of which he is capable until he has allowed himself to see his own littleness.

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

Formality Thus the absence of all mention of particular things or properties in logic or pure mathematics is a necessary result of the fact that this study is, as we say, "purely formal".

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

A man is rational in proportion as his intelligence informs and controls his desires.

There can't be a practical reason for believing something that is not true.

The axiomatic method has many advantages over honest work.

Reason may be a small force, but it is constant, and works always in one direction, while the forces of unreason destroy one another in futile strife.

Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes.

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

As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.

The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.

Analytic It is clear that the definition of "logic" or "mathematics" must be sought by trying to give a new definition of the old notion of "analytic" propositions.

Facts have to be discovered by observation, not by reasoning

Opinions which justify cruelty are inspired by cruel impulses.

It was the duty of wives to submit to husbands, not of husbands to submit to wives. . . men have stronger muscles than women.

The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.

What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it's easy to have glory without power.

Psychology often becomes the disease of which it should be the cure.

The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities.

A world without delight and without affection is a world destitute of value.

To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.

Only six need be attempted.

The essence of education is that it is a change effected in the organism to satisfy the operator.

If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.

The fundamental defect of Christian ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts 'sins' and others 'virtue' on grounds that have nothing to do with their social consequences.

Animal rights, taken to their logical conclusion, mean votes for oysters.

Shakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].

Tobacco . . . is not prohibited in the Scriptures, though, as Samuel Butler points out, St. Paul would no doubt have denounced it if he had known of it.

One is always a little afraid of love, but above all, one is afraid of pain or causing pain.

Each act of cruelty is eternally a part of the universe; nothing that happens later can make that act good rather than bad, or can confer perfection on the whole of which it is a part.

Vanity is a motive of immense potency.

We have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age.

Philosophy bakes no bread

Altogether it will be found that a quiet life is characteristic of great men, and that their pleasures have not been of the sort that would look exciting to the outward eye.

The road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work.

There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.

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

We know that the exercise of virtue should be its own reward, and it seems to follow that the enduring of it on the part of the patient should be its own punishment.

The first step in wisdom, as well as in morality, is to open the windows of the ego as wide as possible.