Quotes from Bertrand Russell

When considering marriage one should ask oneself this question; 'will I be able to talk with this person into old age?' Everything else is transitory, the most time is spent in conversation.

What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices.

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

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

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

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.

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 pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.

We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit. - Octavio Paz The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

All movements go too far.

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.

All the time that he can spare from the adornment of his person, he devotes to the neglect of his duties.

My doctor said to me afterwards, 'When you were ill you behaved like a true philosopher. Every time you came to yourself you made a joke.' I never had a compliment that pleased me more.

In adolescence, I hated life and was continually on the verge of suicide, from which, however, I was restrained by the desire to know more mathematics.

The good life as I conceive it is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.

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

Writing can be either readable or precise, but not at the same time.

Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don't know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.

The newspapers at one time said that I was dead but after carefully examining the evidence I came to the conclusion that this statement was false.

A million million years gives us some time to prepare for the end . . . let us make the best of it.

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

Many people when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praiseworthy.