Politics Quotes by Bertrand Russell

Almost all education has a political motive.

— Bertrand Russell

Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit.

— Bertrand Russell

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

— Bertrand Russell

Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.

— Bertrand Russell

Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth

— Bertrand Russell

War can only be abolished by the establishment of a world government.

— Bertrand Russell

Who ever heard a theologian preface his creed, or a politician conclude his speech with an estimate of the probable error of…

— Bertrand Russell

In our complex world, there cannot be fruitful initiative without government, but unfortunately there can be government without initiative.

— Bertrand Russell

The twin conceptions of sin and vindictive punishment seem to be at the root of much that is most vigorous, both in…

— Bertrand Russell

Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of political events.

— Bertrand Russell

“And if happiness were common, it would preserve itself, because appeals to hatred and fear, which now constitute almost the whole of…

— Bertrand Russell

In all affairs, love, religion, politics, or business, it's a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on things…

— Bertrand Russell

The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.

— Bertrand Russell

Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better.

— Bertrand Russell

If politics is to become scientific, and if the event is not to be constantly surprising, it is imperative that our political…

— Bertrand Russell

“Advocates of capitalism like to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not…

— Bertrand Russell

The time has come, or is about to come, when only large-scale civil disobedience, which should be nonviolent, can save the populations…

— Bertrand Russell

Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right…

— Bertrand Russell

“A man votes for one party and remains miserable; he concludes that it was the other party that would bring the millennium.…

— Bertrand Russell

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man…

— Bertrand Russell

The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense…

— Bertrand Russell

“Religious toleration, to a certain extent, has been won, because people have ceased to consider religion so important as it was once…

— Bertrand Russell

Almost all education has a political motive: it aims at strengthening some group, national or religious or even social, in the competition…

— Bertrand Russell

“In national politics, where you are one of some twenty million voters, your influence is infinitesimal unless you are exceptional or occupy…

— Bertrand Russell

Modern American politicians have the same cowardice about denying an equally bloodthirsty even sillier god, Jehovah. None of us would seriously consider…

— Bertrand Russell

[Freedom] is the greatest of political goods. I do not say freedom is the greatest of all goods: the best things come…

— Bertrand Russell

“The special skill of the politician consists in knowing what passions can be most easily aroused, and how to prevent them, when…

— Bertrand Russell

One of the commonest things to do with savings is to lend them to some Government. In view of the fact that…

— Bertrand Russell

In the higher walks of politics the same sort of thing occurs. The statesman who has gradually concentrated all power within himself…

— 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

“People do not always remember that politics, economics, and social organisation generally, belong in the realm of means, not ends. Our political…

— Bertrand Russell

“The only kind of appeal that wins any instinctive response in party politics is an appeal to hostile feeling; the men who…

— Bertrand Russell

“With subjectivism in philosophy, anarchism in politics goes hand in hand. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertrand... ”

— Bertrand Russell

I am a firm believer in democratic representative government as the best form for those who have the tolerance and self-restraint that…

— Bertrand Russell

If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation do you prefer…

— Bertrand Russell

Education ought to foster the wish for truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth.

— Bertrand Russell

Religion may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the government.

— Bertrand Russell

The skill of the politician consists in guessing what people can be brought to think advantageous to themselves; the skill of the…

— Bertrand Russell

Force plays a much larger part in the government of the world than it did before 1914, and what is especially alarming,…

— Bertrand Russell

The completely untravelled person will view all foreigners as the savage regards the members of another herd. But the man who has…

— Bertrand Russell