“How pleasant a world would be in which no man was allowed to operate on the Stock Exchange unless he could pass… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Politics is concerned with herds rather than with individuals, and the passions which are important in politics are, therefore, those in which… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
Education, and the life of the mind generally, is a matter in which individual initiative is the chief thing needed; the function… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
You must believe that you can help bring about a better world. A good society is produced only by good individuals, just… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
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
“Politicians do not find any attractions in a view which does not lend itself to party declamation, and ordinary mortals prefer views… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
One of the commonest things to do with savings is to lend them to some Government. In view of the fact that… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“In science, an observer states his results along with the “probable error”; but who ever heard of a theologian or a politician stating the probable error in his dogmas, or even admitting that any error is conceivable? That is because in science, where we approach nearest to real knowledge, a man can safely rely on the strength of his case,… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“Most men think that in framing their political opinions they are actuated by desire for the public good; but 9 times out… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“Social cohesion is a necessity, and mankind has never yet succeeded in enforcing cohesion by merely rational arguments. Every community is exposed to two opposite dangers: ossification through too much discipline and reverence for tradition, on the one hand; and on the other hand, dissolution, or subjection to foreign conquest, through the growth of individualism and personal experience that makes… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
Citizens as conceived by governments are persons who admire the status quo and are prepared to exert themselves for its preservation. Oddly enough, while all governments aim at producing men of this type to the exclusion of all other types, their heroes in the past are of exactly the sort that they aim at preventing in the present. Americans admire… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“Education, the press, politics, religion—in a word, all the great forces in the world—are at present on the side of irrationality; they… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“In religion and politics, on the contrary, though there is as yet nothing approaching scientific knowledge, everybody considers it de rigueur to have a dogmatic opinion, to be backed up by inflicting starvation, prison, and war, and to be carefully guarded from argumentative competition with any different opinion. If only men could be brought into a tentatively agnostic frame of… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“The romantic movement, in art, in literature, and in politics, is bond up with this subjective way of judging men, not as… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“Russell observes that "the merits of democracy are negative: it does not ensure good government, but it prevents certain evils," such as the evil of a small group of individuals achieving a secure monopoly on political power. The chief peril for the politician, Russell insists, is love of power. And politicians can easily yield to the love of power on… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
“The skill of the politician consists in guessing what people can be brought to think advantageous to themselves; the skill of the experts consists in calculating what really is advantageous, provided people can be brought to think so. (The proviso is essential, because measures which arouse serious resentment are seldom advantageous, whatever merits they may have otherwise.) The power of… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share
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 Image
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 Image
Those who advocate common usage in philosophy sometimes speak in a manner that suggests the mystique of the 'common man.' — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
“Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. Amid such a world, if anywhere, our ideals henceforward must find a home. That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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