Quotes from Bertrand Russell

Becoming aware of foreign customs, however, does not always have a beneficial effect. In the 17th Century, when the Manchus conquered China, it was the custom among the Chinese for the women to have small feet, and among the Manchus for the men to wear pigtails. Instead of each dropping their own foolish custom, they each adopted the foolish custom of the other, and the Chinese continued to wear pigtails until they shook off the domination of the Manchus in the revolution of 1911.

Be very wary of opinions that flatter your self-esteem.

People do not always remember that politics, economics, and social organization generally, belong in the realm of means, not ends... a society does not, or at least should not, exist to satisfy an external survey, but to bring a good life to the individuals who compose it.

Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false. To know the truth is more difficult than most men suppose, and to act with ruthless determination in the belief that truth is the monopoly of their party is to invite disaster.

Under the influence of great fear, almost everybody becomes superstitious.

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.

When two things have frequently existed in close temporal contiguity, either comes in time to cause the other.

as Shakespeare says: "What's to come is still unsure." Even the shrewdest men are apt to be wildly astray if they prophecy so much as 10 years ahead. Some people will consider this doctrine immoral, but after all it is the Gospel which says "take no thought for the morrow.

We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.

Zwyczaj lekkomyÅ›lnego przylepiania etykietek sÅ'u?y wygodzie ludzi, którzy chcÄ… siÄ™ wyda? bystrzy bez koniecznoÅ›ci myÅ›lenia, niewielki jednak ma zwiÄ…zek z rzeczywistoÅ›ciÄ….

Peano. He showed that the entire theory of the natural numbers could be derived from three primitive ideas and five primitive propositions in addition to those of pure logic.

The general principles of science, such as the belief in the reign of law, and the belief that every event must have a cause, are as completely dependent upon the inductive principle as are the beliefs of daily life All such general principles are believed because mankind have found innumerable instances of their truth and no instances of their falsehood. But this affords no evidence for their truth in the future, unless the inductive principle is assumed.

Ich hätte gern eine Welt, in der das Ziel der Erziehung geistige Freiheit wäre und nicht darin bestünde, den Geist der Jugend in eine Rüstung zu zwängen, die ihn das ganze Leben lang vor den Pfeilen objektiver Beweise schützen soll. Die Welt braucht offene Herzen und geistige Aufgeschlossenheit, und das erreichen wir nicht durch starre Systeme, mögen sie nun alt oder neu sein.

ViaÈ›a împlinit? presupune, pe lâng? virtute, multe altele – de pild?, inteligen??. Iar conÈ™tiinÈ›a este aici cel mai nepotrivit ghid, c?ci ea const? din vagi reminiscenÈ›e de percepte auzite în frageda tinereÈ›e, astfel încât nu este niciodat? mai înÈ›eleapt? decât guvernanta sau mama persoanei în cauz?.

the broad rule is that it is easier now than in former days to exert power at a distance from the centre. The effect of this is to increase the intensity of competition between States, and to make victory more absolute, since the resulting increase of size need not impair efficiency. A World State is now a technical possibility, and might be established by a victor in some really serious world-war, or, more probably, by the most powerful of the neutrals.

meeting dangers is no part of the essential purpose of economic organisations, or of governmental organisations concerned with internal affairs. But lifeboats and fire-brigades, like armies and navies, are constructed for the purpose of meeting dangers. In a certain less immediate sense, this is also true of religious bodies, which exist in part to allay the metaphysical fears that are buried deep in our nature.

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.

Obloquy is, to most men, more painful than death; that is one reason why, in times of collective excitement, so few men venture to dissent from the prevailing opinion.

All submissiveness is rooted in fear, whether the leader to whom we submit be human or divine.

As regards the kind of belief: it is thought virtuous to have Faith - that is to say, to have a conviction which cannot be shaken by contrary evidence. Or, if contrary evidence might induce doubt, it is held that contrary evidence must be suppressed.

There is, I think, in either a man or a woman a tendency to feel affection for any child whom he or she has to tend. Even if nothing but custom and convention, or wages, have in the first instance caused an adult to have the care of a child, the mere fact of having that care will, in the majority of cases, cause affection to grow up.

A tutto ciò vanno aggiunte, in quanto contribuiscono alla felicitá dell'uomo di scienza, la bellezza delle più splendide conquiste, e la coscienza di un'utilità inestimabile per la razza umana. Una vita dedicata alla scienza è dunque una vita felice, e la sua felicità deriva dalle migliori possibilitá che si aprono dinnanzi agli abitanti di questo inquieto e impressionante pianeta

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

After ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it has generated Neros, Genghis Khans, and Hitlers. This, however, I believe is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.