Bertrand Russell Quotes

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.
Bertrand Russell

Problem, Else, Sense

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.
Bertrand Russell

Word, Possible, Takes

Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.
Bertrand Russell

Human, Order, Truly

Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.
Bertrand Russell

Science, Everything, Almost

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.
Bertrand Russell

Start, Questions, Achieve

It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals.
Bertrand Russell

Fate, Seems, Ideals

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

Good, Bad, Belief

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
Bertrand Russell

Love, Power, Hatred

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.
Bertrand Russell

Power, Greatest, Others

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?
Bertrand Russell

Beautiful, Real, Why

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.
Bertrand Russell

Mind, Rather, Discipline

Sin is geographical.
Bertrand Russell

The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts.
Bertrand Russell

Knowledge, Emotions, Facts

Admiration of the proletariat, like that of dams, power stations, and aeroplanes, is part of the ideology of the machine age.
Bertrand Russell

Age, Power, Admiration

Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.
Bertrand Russell

Time, Wisdom, Feeling

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Bertrand Russell

Life, Time, Freedom

If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.
Bertrand Russell

Give, Able, Might

In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.
Bertrand Russell

Experience, Against, Word

Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.
Bertrand Russell

Thoughts, Desires, Submission

Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.
Bertrand Russell

Power, Beautiful, Slavery

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.
Bertrand Russell

Happiness, Change, Hope

Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
Bertrand Russell

Whatever, Happens, Ignorant

Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.
Bertrand Russell

Reason, Creative, Rather

The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe.
Bertrand Russell

Pain, Heart, Start

The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
Bertrand Russell

Dad, Society, Children

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Biography

Nationality: British

Type: Philosopher

Born: May 18, 1872

Died: February 2, 1970

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Cite this Page: Citation

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