424 quotes
The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilized men.
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918)
No man is liberated from fear who dare not see his place in the world as it is; no man can achieve the greatness of which he is capable until he has allowed himself to see his own littleness.
Dreams and Facts (1919)
Love is wise – Hatred is foolish.
Americans need rest, but do not know it. I believe this to be a large part of the explanation of the crime wave in the United States.
Sceptical Essays (1928)
Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off.
Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956)
There are those who blame the Press, but in this I think they are mistaken. The Press is such as the public demands, and the public demands bad newspapers because it has been badly educated.
Education and the Social Order (1932)
A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.
Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
Sceptical Essays (1928)
To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.
Mortals and Others (1931)
The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.
Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance.
The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.
Political Ideals (1917)
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
A History of Western Philosophy (1945)
Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.
Our Knowledge of the External World (1914)
I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step toward any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another.
Proposed Roads To Freedom (1918)
A process which led from the amœba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress – though whether the amœba would agree with this opinion is not known.
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918)
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.
An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
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.
Sceptical Essays (1928)
When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918)