Philosophy Quotes by Bertrand Russell

Philosophy bakes no bread

— Bertrand Russell

Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

— Bertrand Russell

It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true

— Bertrand Russell

The finding of arguments for a conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but special pleading

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

— Bertrand Russell

Science is what we know, and philosophy is what we don't know.

— Bertrand Russell

Philosophy is an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously.

— Bertrand Russell

“Prudence versus passion is a conflict that runs through history.”

— Bertrand Russell

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know.

— Bertrand Russell

“Man is not a solitary animal, and so long as social Life survives, self-realization cannot be the supreme principle of ethics.”

— Bertrand Russell

“To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in…

— Bertrand Russell

The fundamental defect of Christian ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts 'sins' and others 'virtue' on…

— Bertrand Russell

The law of causality, I believe, like much that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like…

— Bertrand Russell

“A philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything other except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of…

— Bertrand Russell

“This [Hegel's philosophy] illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives…

— Bertrand Russell

“Grammar and ordinary language are bad guides to metaphysics. A great book might be written showing the influence of syntax on philosophy.”

— Bertrand Russell

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any…

— Bertrand Russell

“Among these surprising possibilities, doubt suggests that perhaps there is no table at all. Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions…

— Bertrand Russell

Hegel's philosophy is so odd that one would not have expected him to be able to get sane men to accept it,…

— Bertrand Russell

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy…

— Bertrand Russell

Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to…

— Bertrand Russell

“The trouble arises from the generally received philosophy of life, according to which life is a contest, a competition, in which respect…

— Bertrand Russell

I hold all knowledge that is concerned with things that actually exist - all that is commonly called Science - to be…

— Bertrand Russell

“My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my…

— Bertrand Russell

“The 'practical' man, as this word is often used, is one who recognizes only the material needs, who realizes that men must…

— Bertrand Russell

“I think of sense, and of thoughts built on sense, as windows, not as prison bars. I think that we can, however…

— Bertrand Russell

“Philosophy, as I shall understand the word, is something intermediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists of speculations on matters…

— Bertrand Russell

With subjectivity in philosophy, anarchism in politics goes hand in hand. Already during Luther's lifetime, unwelcome and unacknowledged disciples had developed the…

— Bertrand Russell

Philosophy, for Plato, is a kind of vision, the 'vision of truth'...Everyone who has done any kind of creative work has experienced,…

— Bertrand Russell

The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based…

— Bertrand Russell

While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless ...; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy…

— Bertrand Russell

“Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. Amid such…

— Bertrand Russell

Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every…

— Bertrand Russell

The legacy of Greece to Western philosophy is Western philosophy.

— Bertrand Russell

To create a good philosophy you should renounce metaphysics but be a good mathematician.

— Bertrand Russell

Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never.

— Bertrand Russell

To create a healthy philosophy you should renounce metaphysics but be a good mathematician.

— Bertrand Russell

Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.

— Bertrand Russell

Science, by itself cannot, supply us with an ethic.

— Bertrand Russell