Quotes from Bertrand Russell

Orthodoxy is the grave of intelligence, no matter what orthodoxy it may be.

Orthodoxy is the death of intelligence.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence

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

My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion go hand in hand.

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

RELIGION: A set of beliefs held as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, going beyond or contrary to evidence, and inculcated by methods which are emotional or authoritarian, not intellectual.

I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds.

I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out.

If everything has a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just be the world as God.

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.

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists - that is why they invented hell.

The more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs.

I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.

No opinion has ever been too errant to become a creed.

Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.

I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me.

This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.

My own view on religion is . . . It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and . . . to chronicle eclipses . . . These two services I am prepared to acknowledge.

No Carthaginian denied Moloch, because to do so would have required more courage that was required to face death in battle.