Bertrand Russell Quotes
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How much good it would do if one could exterminate the human race.
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Without effort and change, human life cannot remain good. It is not a finished Utopia that we ought to desire, but a world where imagination and hope are alive and active.
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A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.
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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 quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
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I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me.
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To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
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I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attach too much importance to the negative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company.
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Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
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The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation, and the first step towards co-operation lies in the hearts of individuals.
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I have always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel.
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The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
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Apart from logical cogency, there is to me something a little odd about the ethical valuations of those who think that an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent Deity, after preparing the ground by many millions of years of lifeless nebulae, would consider Himself adequately rewarded by the final emergence of Hitler and Stalin and the H-bomb.
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If you're certain, you're certainly wrong, because nothing deserves certainty.
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We thus have a kind of see-saw: first, pure persuasion leading to the conversion of a minority; then force exerted to secure that the rest of the community shall be exposed to the right propaganda; and finally a genuine belief on the part of the great majority, which makes the use of force again unnecessary.
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The principal source of the harm done by the State is the fact that power is its chief end.
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Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life.
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Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
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I do like clarity and exact thinking and I believe that very important to mankind because when you allow yourself to think inexactly your prejudices, your bias, your self interest comes in in ways you don't notice and you do bad things without knowing that you are doing them: self deception is very easy. So that I do think clear thinking immensely important.
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Either Man will abolish war, or war will abolish Man.
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The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
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A European who goes to New York and Chicago sees the future... when he goes to Asia he sees the past.
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It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living. It is clear also that thought is not free if all the arguments on one side of a controversy are perpetually presented as attractively as possible, while the arguments on the other side can only be discovered by diligent search.
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The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.
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Acquisitiveness – the wish to possess as much as possible of goods, or the title to goods – is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries.