Ifs Quotes by Bertrand Russell

I am allowed to use plain English because everybody knows that I could use mathematical logic if I chose.

— Bertrand Russell

How much good it would do if one could exterminate the human race.

— Bertrand Russell

Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself.

— Bertrand Russell

All's well that ends well; which is the epitaph I should put on my tombstone if I were the last man left…

— Bertrand Russell

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.

— Bertrand Russell

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion go hand in hand.

— 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

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the second chance were…

— Bertrand Russell

A man of Seville is shaved by the Barber of Seville if and only if the man does not shave himself. Does…

— Bertrand Russell

A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree or certainty which the evidence warrants, would,…

— Bertrand Russell

If we spent half an hour every day in silent immobility, I am convinced that we should conduct all our affairs, personal,…

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.

— Bertrand Russell

If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as…

— Bertrand Russell

A man who has once perceived, however temporarily and however briefly, what makes greatness of soul, can no longer be happy if…

— Bertrand Russell

Against the vast majority of my countrymen, even at this moment, in the name of humanity and civilization, I protest against our…

— Bertrand Russell

The use of force stands in need of control by a public neutral authority, in the interests of liberty no less than…

— 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

“Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase…

— Bertrand Russell

We are told that Sin consists in acting contrary to God's commands, but we are also told that God is omnipotent. If…

— 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

There are some simple maxims which I think might be commended to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word…

— Bertrand Russell

All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be…

— Bertrand Russell

The raw fruits of the earth were made for human sustenance. Even the white tails of rabbits, according to some theologians, have…

— Bertrand Russell

If the youth is content to abandon his previous associates and to throw in his lot whole-heartedly with the rulers, he may,…

— Bertrand Russell

Thee might observe incidentally that if the state paid for child-bearing it might and ought to require a medical certificate that the…

— Bertrand Russell

There is a possibility in human minds of something mysterious as the night-wind, deep as the sea, calm as the stars, and…

— Bertrand Russell

An educator should think of a child as a gardener thinks of a plant, as something to be made to grow by…

— Bertrand Russell

If life is to be fully human it must serve some end which seems, in some sense, outside human life, some end…

— Bertrand Russell

The significance of a fact is relative to [the general body of scientific] knowledge. To say that a fact is significant in…

— Bertrand Russell

What will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health, if no one remembers how to use them?

— Bertrand Russell

A marriage is likely to be called happy if neither party ever expected to get much happiness out of it.

— Bertrand Russell

When the journey from means to end is not too long, the means themselves are enjoyed if the end is ardently desired.

— Bertrand Russell

If we compare Europe with other continents, it is marked out as [another] persecuting continent.

— Bertrand Russell

A man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if indeed such a man exists.

— Bertrand Russell

I feel as if one would only discover on one's death bed what one ought to have lived for

— Bertrand Russell

If you had the power to destroy the world, would you do so?

— Bertrand Russell

If the West can claim superiority in anything, it is . . . in science and scientific technique.

— Bertrand Russell