Bertrand Russell Quotes

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Religions that teach brotherly love have been used as an excuse for persecution, and our profoundest scientific insight is made into a means of mass destruction... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic... view

By: Bertrand Russell

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

By: Bertrand Russell

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Sin is geographical... view

By: Bertrand Russell

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf... view

By: Bertrand Russell

The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Liberty is the right to do what I like.. view

By: Bertrand Russell

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness... view

By: Bertrand Russell

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate... view

By: Bertrand Russell

None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear... view

By: Bertrand Russell

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter.. view

By: Bertrand Russell

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power... view

By: Bertrand Russell

Most people would sooner die than think.. view

By: Bertrand Russell

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim... view

By: Bertrand Russell