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Bertrand Russell

78 quotes

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and social critic. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 for his varied and significant writing championing humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought. Russell is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy.

“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.”

— Bertrand Russell

Happiness

All Quotes by Bertrand Russell

“Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.”

— Bertrand Russell

Courage

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

— Bertrand Russell

Dad

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

— Bertrand Russell

Intelligence

“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.”

— Bertrand Russell

Freedom

“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.”

— Bertrand Russell

Great

“Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.”

— Bertrand Russell

Men

“Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.”

— Bertrand Russell

Power

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.”

— Bertrand Russell

Work

“Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.”

— Bertrand Russell

Education

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

— Bertrand Russell

Fear

“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.”

— Bertrand Russell

Happiness

“Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.”

— Bertrand Russell

Men

“Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.”

— Bertrand Russell

Freedom

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

— Bertrand Russell

Fear

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

— Bertrand Russell

Good

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

— Bertrand Russell

Fear

“Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.”

— Bertrand Russell

Good

“I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.”

— Bertrand Russell

Food

“I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.”

— Bertrand Russell

Religion

“War does not determine who is right - only who is left.”

— Bertrand Russell

War