Psychology Quotes by Bertrand Russell

Whatever we know without inference is mental.

— Bertrand Russell

What is matter? Never mind.

— Bertrand Russell

The mind is a strange machine which can combine the materials offered to it in the most astonishing ways.

— Bertrand Russell

Dogmatism is the greatest of mental obstacles to human happiness.

— Bertrand Russell

Psychology often becomes the disease of which it should be the cure.

— Bertrand Russell

What is best in mathematics deserves not merely to be learnt as a task, but to assimilated as a part of daily…

— Bertrand Russell

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

— Bertrand Russell

To write tragedy, a man must feel tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he…

— Bertrand Russell

“A mind perpetually open, will be a mind perpetually vacant! العقل المنفتح على الدوام هو عقل فارغ على الدوام!”

— Bertrand Russell

“The 'practical' man, as this word is often used, is one who recognizes only the material needs, who realizes that men must…

— Bertrand Russell

Marx's father became a Christian when Marx was a little boy, and some, at least, of the dogmas he must have then…

— Bertrand Russell

The first effect of emancipation from the Church was not to make men think rationally, but to open their minds to every…

— Bertrand Russell

“We are uttering a mere tautology if we mean by ‘in the mind’ the same as by ‘before the mind’, i.e. if we mean…

— Bertrand Russell

The most essential characteristic of scientific technique is that it proceeds from experiment, not from tradition. The experimental habit of mind is…

— Bertrand Russell

Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in…

— Bertrand Russell

As I grew up I became increasingly interested in philosophy, or which [his family] profoundly disapproved. Everytime the subject came up they…

— Bertrand Russell

I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology... Its importance has been enormously increased by the…

— Bertrand Russell

The world that I should wish to see would be one freed from the virulence of group hostilities and capable of realizing…

— Bertrand Russell

“Those who maintain that mind is the reality and matter an evil dream are called "idealists"—a word which has a different meaning…

— Bertrand Russell

“Whatever can be thought of is an idea in the mind of the person thinking of it; therefore nothing can be thought…

— Bertrand Russell

“The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual…

— Bertrand Russell

“There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I…

— Bertrand Russell

“There is a widespread philosophical tendency towards the view which tells us that Man is the measure of all things, that truth…

— Bertrand Russell

“Two things are to be remembered: that a man whose opinions and theories are worth studying may be presumed to have had…

— 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

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

— Bertrand Russell

Philosophy, for Plato, is a kind of vision, the 'vision of truth'...Everyone who has done any kind of creative work has experienced,…

— Bertrand Russell

Scientific societies are as yet in their infancy. It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments…

— Bertrand Russell

“It is in the moments when the mind is most active and the fewest things are forgotten that the most intense joys…

— Bertrand Russell

Whether science-and indeed civilization in general-can long survive depends upon psychology, that is to say, it depends upon what human beings desire.

— Bertrand Russell

“The mind of the most rational among us may be compared to a stormy ocean of passionate convictions based on desire, upon…

— Bertrand Russell

I think it would be just to say the most essential characteristic of mind is memory, using this word in its broadest…

— Bertrand Russell

To the primitive mind, everything is either friendly or hostile; but experience has shown that friendliness and hostility are not the conceptions…

— Bertrand Russell

To a mind of sufficient intellectual power, the whole of mathematics would appear trivial, as trivial as the statement that a four-footed…

— Bertrand Russell

Through the greatness of the universe, which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with…

— Bertrand Russell

“Travelling, whether in the mental or the physical world, is a joy, and it is good to know that, in the mental…

— Bertrand Russell

To a modern mind, it is difficult to feel enthusiastic about a virtuous life if nothing is going to be achieved by…

— Bertrand Russell

The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interest of the desire to know.

— Bertrand Russell

The psychology of adultery has been falsified by conventional morals, which assume, in monogamous countries, that attraction to one person cannot coexist…

— Bertrand Russell

He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness…

— Bertrand Russell