Quotes by Russell, Bertrand

"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."

Russell, Bertrand on slavery   

"We are all prone to the malady of the introvert who, with the manifold spectacle of the world spread out before him, turns away and gazes only upon the emptiness within. But let us not imagine there is anything grand about the introvert's unhappiness."

Russell, Bertrand on solitude   

"To expect a personality to survive the disintegration of the brain is like expecting a cricket club to survive when all of its members are dead."

Russell, Bertrand on soul   

"When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favor of the belief which he finds in himself."

Russell, Bertrand on belief   

"What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out."

Russell, Bertrand on belief
3 fans of this quote   

"Unless one is taught what to do with success after getting it, achievement of it must inevitably leave him prey to boredom."

Russell, Bertrand on bores and boredom   

"Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it."

Russell, Bertrand on bores and boredom   

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."

Russell, Bertrand on capitalism   

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

Russell, Bertrand on caution   

"What men want is not knowledge, but certainty."

Russell, Bertrand on certainty   

"All movements go too far."

Russell, Bertrand on change   

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth more than ruin more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

Russell, Bertrand on thoughts and thinking   

"Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do."

Russell, Bertrand on thoughts and thinking   

"Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, the chief glory of man."

Russell, Bertrand on thoughts and thinking   

"Thoughts is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit."

Russell, Bertrand on thoughts and thinking   

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

Russell, Bertrand on time
4 fans of this quote   

"A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is."

Russell, Bertrand on time   

"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 civilized men."

Russell, Bertrand on understanding   

"I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity."

Russell, Bertrand on war   

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."

Russell, Bertrand on wisdom   

"For my part I distrust all generalizations about women, favorable and unfavorable, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern; all alike, I should say, result from paucity of experience."

Russell, Bertrand on women   

"Our instinctive emotions are those that we have inherited from a much more dangerous world, and contain, therefore, a larger portion of fear than they should."

Russell, Bertrand on worry   

"I am paid by the word, so I always write the shortest words possible."

Russell, Bertrand on writers and writing
3 fans of this quote   

"If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give."

Russell, Bertrand on circumstance   

"There will still be things that machines cannot do. They will not produce great art or great literature or great philosophy; they will not be able to discover the secret springs of happiness in the human heart; they will know nothing of love and friendship."

Russell, Bertrand on computers   

"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith."

Russell, Bertrand on contentment
4 fans of this quote   

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

Russell, Bertrand on controversy   

"Conventional people are roused to fury by departures from convention, largely because they regard such departures as a criticism of themselves."

Russell, Bertrand on conventionality   

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

Russell, Bertrand on cooperation
3 fans of this quote   

"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."

Russell, Bertrand on credulity   

"The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately. "

Russell, Bertrand on uncategorised   

"Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?"

Russell, Bertrand on atheism
3 fans of this quote   

"In the visible world, the Milky Way is a tiny fragment; within this fragment, the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties, crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded. They divide their time between labour designed to postpone the moment of dissolution for themselves and frantic struggles to hasten it for others of their kind."

Russell, Bertrand on