Bertrand Russell Quotes and its meanings

To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

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

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

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

Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.

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

The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

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

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

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.

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.

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

Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because, like Spinoza's God, it won't love us in return.

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

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.

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

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

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

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

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

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible...

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.

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

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

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

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.

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.

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

The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know.

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

What is needed is not the will to believe but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

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

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.

Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.

Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter second, telling other people to do so.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.