Quotes By Bertrand Russell

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

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

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

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

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

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.

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

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

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

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

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.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

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.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

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.

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

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

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

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

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.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.