As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles. — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Humanistic ethics is based on the principle that only humans themselves can determine the criterion for virtue and not an authority transcending… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices. — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The discipline in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our trouble.… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
A religious creed differs from a scientific theory in claiming to embody eternal and absolutely certain truth, whereas science is always tentative,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The teacher, like the artist and the philosopher, can perform his work adequately only if he feels himself to be an individual… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The use of force stands in need of control by a public neutral authority, in the interests of liberty no less than… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“But there is no conceivable way of making people do things they do not wish to do. What is possible is to… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Owing to the identification of religion with virtue, together with the fact that the most religious men are not the most intelligent,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
It is odd that neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point. At… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
To modern educated people, it seems obvious that matters of fact are to be ascertained by observation, not by consulting ancient authorities.… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Nothing of importance is ever achieved without discipline. I feel myself sometimes not wholly in sympathy with some modern educational theorists, because… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The teacher, like the artist, the philosopher, and the man of letters, can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State. — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
That the world is in a bad shape is undeniable, but there is not the faintest reason in history to suppose that Christianity offers… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
Those who advocate common usage in philosophy sometimes speak in a manner that suggests the mystique of the 'common man.' — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. Amid such a world,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
Dr. Arnold . . . the admired reformer of public schools, came across some cranks who thought it a mistake to flog boys. Anyone… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict. — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
I cannot escape from the conclusion that the great ages of progress have depended upon a small number of individuals of transcendent ability. — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
I think it would be just to say the most essential characteristic of mind is memory, using this word in its broadest sense to… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
The newspapers at one time said that I was dead but after carefully examining the evidence I came to the conclusion that this statement… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion.” — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
There is no greater reason for children to honour parents than for parents to honour children except, that while the children are young, the… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
