Wish Quotes by Bertrand Russell

Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes.

— Bertrand Russell

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured…

— Bertrand Russell

It is not my prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of…

— Bertrand Russell

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any…

— Bertrand Russell

Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

— Bertrand Russell

The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security.

— Bertrand Russell

If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

— Bertrand Russell

One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the…

— Bertrand Russell

You may, if you are an old-fashioned schoolmaster, wish to consider yourself full of universal benevolence and at the same time derive…

— Bertrand Russell

People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a…

— 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

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation ... it is common to wish well to oneself, but in our technically…

— Bertrand Russell

Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason.…

— Bertrand Russell

William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are…

— Bertrand Russell

For my part, the thing I would wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security. But what the typical modern…

— Bertrand Russell

“My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my…

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

— Bertrand Russell

When I say that children should be told about sex, I do not mean that they should be told only the bare…

— Bertrand Russell

We may define "faith" as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one…

— Bertrand Russell

The whole conception of a God is a conception derived from the ancient oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of…

— Bertrand Russell

I should like to believe my people's religion, which was just what I could wish, but alas, it is impossible. I have…

— Bertrand Russell

The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interests of the desire to know-it involves…

— Bertrand Russell

Christ said "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" and when asked "who is thy neighbour? went on to the parable of…

— Bertrand Russell

To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.

— Bertrand Russell

Uncertainty in the pressure of vivid hopes and fears is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the…

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to…

— Bertrand Russell

There are certain things that our age needs, and certain things that it should avoid. It needs compassion and a wish that…

— Bertrand Russell

When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth…

— Bertrand Russell

Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if…

— Bertrand Russell

I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think man is merely a kind…

— Bertrand Russell

Abstract work, if one wishes to do it well, must be allowed to destroy one's humanity; one raises a monument which is…

— Bertrand Russell

The late F. W. H. Myers used to tell how he asked a man at a dinner table what he thought would…

— Bertrand Russell

I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine…

— Bertrand Russell

The essence of good manners consists in making it clear that one has no wish to hurt. When it is clearly necessary…

— Bertrand Russell

If you question any candid person who is no longer young, he is very likely to tell you that, having tasted life…

— Bertrand Russell

The evolution of our spirit is blazed on the dark background of eternity by our individual wakes. Every person can, if he/she…

— Bertrand Russell

It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish…

— Bertrand Russell

Every isolated passion, is, in isolation, insane; sanity may be defined as synthesis of insanities. Every dominant passion generates a dominant fear,…

— Bertrand Russell