Authors - Bertrand Russell

Brief Biography

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (18 May 1872 - 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Britain. - Wikipedia

Quotes by Bertrand RussellBrowse all of these

Quote 116by Anonymous on 14/12/2010

Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
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    Quote 759by Anonymous on 07/01/2011

    I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion is anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
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      Quote 772by Anonymous on 07/01/2011

      A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.
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        Quote 808by Anonymous on 07/01/2011

        No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
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          Quote 985by Anonymous on 09/01/2011

          We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.
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            Quote 1246by Anonymous on 11/01/2011

            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.
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              Quote 1372by Anonymous on 12/01/2011

              Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.
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                Quote 1452by Anonymous on 13/01/2011

                To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
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                  Quote 1678by Anonymous on 15/01/2011

                  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.
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                    Quote 1756by Anonymous on 16/01/2011

                    Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable, at least in its main outlines.
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                      Quote 1765by Anonymous on 16/01/2011

                      A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
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                        Quote 1793by Anonymous on 16/01/2011

                        It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
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                          Quote 1806by Anonymous on 16/01/2011

                          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.
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                            Quote 2403by Anonymous on 28/01/2011

                            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.
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                              Quote 2455by Anonymous on 30/01/2011

                              What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
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                                Quote 2565by Anonymous on 02/02/2011

                                It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.
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                                  Quote 2694by Anonymous on 03/02/2011

                                  Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.
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                                    Quote 2738by Anonymous on 03/02/2011

                                    Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.
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                                      Quote 2801by Anonymous on 03/02/2011

                                      Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.
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                                        Quote 3350by Anonymous on 05/02/2011

                                        War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
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                                          Quote 3430by Anonymous on 06/02/2011

                                          Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.
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                                            Quote 3479by Anonymous on 06/02/2011

                                            Those who fear life are already three parts dead.
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                                              Quote 3619by Anonymous on 08/02/2011

                                              The puritanism of Christianity has played havoc with the moderation that an enlightened and tolerant critical spirit would have produced. I've noticed that in whatever country, county, town, or other region there is a regulation enjoining temperance, the population seems to be entirely composed of teetotallers and drunkards. There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.
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                                                Quote 3910by Anonymous on 12/02/2011

                                                The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts: the less you know the hotter you get.
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                                                  Quote 4006by Anonymous on 12/02/2011

                                                  Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
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                                                    Quote 4020by Anonymous on 12/02/2011

                                                    So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
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                                                      Quote 4049by Anonymous on 12/02/2011

                                                      To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do.
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                                                        Quote 4270by Anonymous on 18/02/2011

                                                        Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
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                                                          Quote 4450by Anonymous on 21/02/2011

                                                          Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
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                                                            Quote 5552by Anonymous on 15/07/2011

                                                            Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.
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                                                              Quote 5572by Anonymous on 20/07/2011

                                                              To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
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                                                                Quote 6441by Anonymous on 19/09/2011

                                                                We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.
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                                                                  Quote 7093by Anonymous on 21/10/2011

                                                                  Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.
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                                                                    Quote 7206by Anonymous on 27/10/2011

                                                                    When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
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                                                                      Quote 8527by Anonymous on 16/05/2012

                                                                      To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
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                                                                        Quote 9423by Anonymous on 31/07/2012

                                                                        I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.
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                                                                          Quote 10155by Anonymous on 15/09/2012

                                                                          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 paradise in a few years.
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                                                                            Quote 11479by Anonymous on 04/01/2013

                                                                            Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
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                                                                              Quote 11683by Anonymous on 15/01/2013

                                                                              The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
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                                                                                Quote 11694by Anonymous on 16/01/2013

                                                                                But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
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                                                                                  Quote 11893by Anonymous on 30/01/2013

                                                                                  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 in poetry.
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                                                                                    Quote 12301by Anonymous on 23/03/2013

                                                                                    The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
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                                                                                      Quote 12379by Anonymous on 02/04/2013

                                                                                      Nothing says, 'I have no idea what to get you,' quite like giant beige bath towels.
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                                                                                        Quote 12583by Anonymous on 01/05/2013

                                                                                        I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
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                                                                                          Quote 12829by Anonymous on 25/05/2013

                                                                                          Too little liberty brings stagnation and too much brings chaos.
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                                                                                            Quote 12894by Anonymous on 31/05/2013

                                                                                            Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
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                                                                                              Quote 13796by Anonymous on 03/09/2013

                                                                                              It is obvious that 'obscenity' is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means 'anything that shocks the magistrate.'
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