Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

Quotes

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

• One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.

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

• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

• To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

• Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

• It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.

• Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.

• 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.

• 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.'

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

• Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself.

• Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

• When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.

• 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.

• Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

• 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.

• To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

• War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

• No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.