Bertrand Russell Quotations

Viewing quotes 22 to 41 (49 total)

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Knowledge]

The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Humankind]

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.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Thinking] [Intelligence]

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Fear]

Those who fear life are already three parts dead.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Fear]

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Fear]

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Love]

Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Math] [Science]

I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because like Spinoza's God, it won't love us in return.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Math]

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Math]

In America everybody is of 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.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Equality]

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.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Philosophy]

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.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Philosophy]

This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Philosophy]

To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Philosophy]

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Teaching]

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Wisdom]

We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Morality] [Hipocrisy]

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Boredom]

Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.
	- Bertrand Russell	more quotations on [Feminism]

Viewing quotes 22 to 41 (49 total)

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