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Attributed quotes — Bertrand Russell

1872–1970

← All quotes by Bertrand Russell

18 quotes

It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.

Attributed

Yes, if you happen to be interested in philosophy and good at it, but not otherwise – but so does bricklaying. Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

Attributed

Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.

Attributed to Russell in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007)

There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire – poison and antidote.

Attributed In Kenneth Harris Talking To: Bertrand Russell (1971)

There is darkness without and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, nor vastness anywhere; only triviality for a moment and then nothing.

Attributed to Russell in Ken Davis' Fire Up Your Life! (1995)

Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.

Attributed A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996)

No man who believes that all is for the best in this suffering world can keep his ethical values unimpaired, since he is always having to find excuses for pain and misery.

Attributed

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.

Attributed to Russell in Crainer's The Ultimate Book of Business Quotations (1997)

To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.

Attributed Williams' Weighing the Odds: A Course in Probability and Statistics (2001)

It's not the experience that happens to you: it's what you do with the experience that happens to you.

Attributed to Russell in Slaby's Sixty Ways to Make Stress Work for You (1987)

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

Attributed A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996)

I've got a one-dimensional mind.

Attributed Said to Rupert Crawshay-Williams; Russell Remembered (1970)

Why? Surely they can find other men.

Attributed

Wherever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure: a larger heart, and a greater self-restraint, would put a calm autumnal sadness in the place of the instinctive outcry of pain.

Attributed

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. The difference is that you can compel your car to go to a garage, but you cannot compel Hitler to go to a psychiatrist.

Attributed A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996)

It seems that sin is geographical. From this conclusion, it is only a small step to the further conclusion that the notion of "sin" is illusory, and that the cruelty habitually practised in punishing it is unnecessary.

Attributed A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996)

"I don't want to! Why should I?"
"Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don't."
"So what? I don't care about other people."
"You should."
"But why?"
"Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don't."

Attributed

I cannot believe – and I say this with all the emphasis of which I am capable – that there can ever be any good excuse for refusing to face the evidence in favour of something unwelcome. It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.

Attributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Bertrand Russell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.