Quotes from Bertrand Russell

I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now.

Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic, and saying Look at me. Look at me is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame.

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

The Chinese watch foreigners as we watch animals in the Zoo... they have no wish to alter the habits of the foreigners, any more than we wish to put the monkeys at the Zoo into trousers and stiff shirts

The painter wants to know what things seem to be, the practical man and the philosopher want to know what they are; but the philosopher's wish to know this is stronger than the practical man's, and is more troubled by knowledge as to the difficulties of answering the question.

De todas as formas de prudência, a prudência no amor é talvez a mais fatal à verdadeira felicidade.

El animal humano, igual que los demás, está adaptado a cierto grado de lucha por la vida, y cuando su gran riqueza permite a un Homo sapiens satisfacer sin esfuerzo todos sus caprichos, la mera ausencia de esfuerzo le quita a su vida un ingrediente imprescindible de la felicidad.

There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them, and feel justified in lying to them.

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use god as an excuse for their cruelty.

one should not regard anything that one accepts as quite certain, but only as probable in a greater or a less degree. Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Gran parte de las dificultades por las que atraviesa el mundo se deben a que los ignorantes están completamente seguros y los inteligentes llenos de dudas.

Instinctive happiness, or joy of life, is one of the most important widespread popular goods that we have lost through industrialism and the high pressure at which most of us live; its commonness in China is a strong reason for thinking well of Chinese civilization.

The relation of husband and wife is what is called "one-one.

We are at the present day passing through a somewhat confused period, when many people have thrown over the old standards without acquiring new ones.

No great achievement is possible without persistent work.

There is no arguing with a mood; it can be changed by some fortunate event, or by a change in our bodily condition, but it cannot be changed by argument.

Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of modern philosophy, invented a method which may still be used with profit--the method of systematic doubt.

For example multi-tasking, often a point of pride for modern professionals, has been shown to lower our mental efficiency and result in impaired cognitive function that is worse than from smoking marijuana.46 Likewise the constant deluge of digital information to which we are exposed can result in a debilitating form of neural addiction that gradually narrows our scope of meaningful achievement while creating the illusion that we are actually accomplishing more with our time.

O universo, até onde o conhecemos pela filosofia da natureza, não é bom nem mau, nem se ocupa em nos fazer felizes ou infelizes. Todas essas filosofias nascem da presunção humana e são bem corrigidas por um pouco de astronomia.

the mediocre men will say if a really able man is allowed to rise as fast as his abilities deserve, and that is why there is a tendency to adopt the rule of seniority, which, since it has nothing to do with merit, does not give rise to the same envious discontent.

Religion has existed since before the dawn of history, while science has existed for at most four centuries; but when science has become old and venerable, it will control our lives as much as religion has ever done. I foresee the time when all who care for the freedom of the human spirit will have to rebel against a scientific tyranny.

It is discouraging that many of the precepts whose sacred character is thus uncritically acknowledged should be such as to inflict much wholly unnecessary misery. If men's kindly impulses were stronger, they would find some way of explaining that these precepts are not to be taken literally, any more than the command to "sell all that thou hast and give to the poor.

compreender uma época ou uma nação devemos compreender sua filosofia e, para que compreendamos sua filosofia, temos de ser, até certo ponto, filósofos.

Ser-se único é uma coisa, mas pertencer a um rebanho de pecadores não tem piada.