Bertrand Russell Quotes
The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.
Boys and girls should be taught respect for each other's liberty... and that jealousy and possessiveness kill love.
There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.
When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.
One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will.
Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Most human beings, though in varying degrees, desire to control, not only their own lives but also the lives of others
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.
If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.
It is likely that America will be more important during the next century or two, but after that it may well be the turn of China.
The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.
The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.
Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that is happiness.
My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
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.
Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.
When two great powers disagree about anything - it doesn't matter what - they must find a way to settle it somehow by arbitration or by negotiation, not by war or threat of war.
Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery, and in such a world hopes could only be irrational.
The more things a man is interested in, the more opportunities of happiness he has and the less he is at the mercy of fate, since if he loses one thing he can fall back upon another.
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.
One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected.
Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.
Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.