Belief Quotes by Bertrand Russell

A fanatical belief in democracy makes democratic institutions impossible.

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

Belief systems provide a programme which relieves the necessity of thought.

— Bertrand Russell

Faith: a firm belief for which there is no evidence.

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

Our beliefs are, however, often contrary to fact.

— Bertrand Russell

I have come to realize that an early symptom of approaching mental illness is the belief that one's work is terribly important.…

— Bertrand Russell

The more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has…

— Bertrand Russell

Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed…

— Bertrand Russell

It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's…

— Bertrand Russell

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

— Bertrand Russell

I resolved from the beginning of my quest that I would not be misled by sentiment and desire into beliefs for which…

— Bertrand Russell

Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that…

— Bertrand Russell

I am delighted to know that Principia Mathematica can now be done by machinery. . . I am quite willing to believe…

— Bertrand Russell

What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions…

— Bertrand Russell

I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief…

— Bertrand Russell

My own belief is that in most ages and in most places obscure psychological forces led men to adopt systems involving quite…

— Bertrand Russell

Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the…

— Bertrand Russell

More and more people are becoming unable to accept traditional [religious] beliefs. If they think that, apart from these beliefs, there is…

— Bertrand Russell

William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are…

— Bertrand Russell

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view…

— Bertrand Russell

Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs…

— Bertrand Russell

[Man] ... his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations…

— Bertrand Russell

What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because…

— Bertrand Russell

The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth.…

— Bertrand Russell

If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon…

— Bertrand Russell

“What really moves people to believe in God is not any intellectual argument at all. Most people believe in God because they…

— Bertrand Russell

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subsciously aware of having no…

— Bertrand Russell

We may define "faith" as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one…

— Bertrand Russell

I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where…

— Bertrand Russell

I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out.

— Bertrand Russell

One of the main causes of trouble in the world is dogmatic and fanatical belief in some doctrine for which there is…

— Bertrand Russell

Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off.…

— Bertrand Russell

When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in…

— Bertrand Russell

Mathematics is, I believe, the chief source of the belief in eternal and exact truth, as well as a sensible intelligible world.

— Bertrand Russell

When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than…

— Bertrand Russell

Belief in a Divine mission is one of the many forms of certainty that have afflicted the human race.

— Bertrand Russell

Emphatic and reiterated assertion, especially during childhood, produces in most people a belief so firm as to have a hold even over…

— Bertrand Russell

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic…

— Bertrand Russell

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with…

— Bertrand Russell