Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
It is for this reason that rationality is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species...even more, in those less… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
In his youth, Wordsworth sympathized with the French Revolution, went to France, wrote good poetry and had a natural daughter. At this… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Cynicism such as one finds very frequently among the most highly educated young men and women of the West, results from the… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Prophets, mystics, poets, scientific discoverers are men whose lives are dominated by a vision; they are essentially solitary men . . .… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Man can be stimulated by hope or driven by fear, but the hope and the fear must be vivid and immediate if… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The objections to religion are of two sorts - intellectual and moral. The intellectual objection is that there is no reason to… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important, and that to take a… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. So long as men are… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The whole conception of a God is a conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“People will tell us that without the consolations of religion they would be intolerably unhappy. So far as this is true, it… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Citizens as conceived by governments are persons who admire the status quo and are prepared to exert themselves for its preservation. Oddly… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The late F. W. H. Myers used to tell how he asked a man at a dinner table what he thought would… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“Very many people spend money in ways quite different from those that their natural tastes would enjoin, merely because the respect of… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
When a man acts in ways that annoy us we wish to think him wicked, and we refuse to face the fact… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty— a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and more profound has been the… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
But if thought is to become the possession of many, not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear.… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
In the daily lives of most men and women, fear plays a greater part than hope: they are more filled with the… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
In spite of Death, the mark and seal of the parental control, Man is yet free, during his brief years, to examine,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
When white men first effect contact with some unspoilt race of savages, they offer them all kinds of benefits, from the light… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be enough for everybody, and no unemployment — assuming a certain… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
To abandon the struggle for private happiness, to expel all eagerness of temporary desire, to burn with passion for eternal things-this is… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
In science the successors stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors; where one man of supreme genius has invented a method, a… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
A physicist looks for causes; that does not necessarily imply that there are causes everywhere. A man may look for gold without… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the lure… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Most men do not feel in themselves the competence required for leading their group to victory, and therefore seek out a captain… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
(on A History of Western Philosophy) I was sometimes accused by reviewers of writing not a true history but a biased account… — 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
