Quotes from Bertrand Russell

Our present predicament is due more than anything else to the fact that we have learnt to understand and control to a terrifying extent the forces of nature outside us, but not those that are embodied in ourselves.

You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step towards the diminution of war, every step towards better treatment of the coloured races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organised Churches of the world.

When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue, because, as men of science, they know that neither is infallible. But when two theologians differ, since there are no criteria to which either can appeal, there is nothing for it but mutual hatred and an open or covert appeal to force.

It may be laid down as a general rule to which there are few exceptions that, when people are mistaken as to what is to their own interest, the course that they believe to be wise is more harmful to others than the course that really is wise. Therefore anything that makes people better judges of their own interest does good.

a priori knowledge such as mathematics or logic is general, whereas all experience is particular.

But in the 'nineties young men desired something more sweeping and passionate, more bold and less bland.

These two sentences suffice to show, as I shall try to prove, that Bergson does not know what number is, and has himself no clear idea of it.

Although personal survival after death is an illusion, there is nevertheless something in the human mind that is eternal

Modern Protestants who urge us to believe in God, for the most part, despise the old 'proofs', and base their faith upon some aspect of human nature—emotions of awe or mystery, the sense of right and wrong, the feeling of aspiration, and so on. This way of defending religious belief was invented by Rousseau. It has become so familiar that his originality may easily not be appreciated by a modern reader, unless he will take the trouble to compare Rousseau with (say) Descartes or Leibniz.

The fanatic fails to recognise that the suppression of a real evil, if carried out too drastically, produces other evils which are even greater.

In Labor movements generally, success through violence can hardly be expected except in circumstances where success without violence is attainable.

To begin with rationality in opinion: I should define it merely as the habit of taking account of all relevant evidence in arriving at a belief. Where certainty is unattainable, a rational man will give most weight to the most probable opinion, while retaining others, which have an appreciable probability, in his mind as hypotheses which subsequent evidence may show to be preferable.

He had a great intellectual influence upon my generation, though in retrospect I do not think it was a very good one.

all our reasonings concerning causes and effects are derived from nothing but custom; and that belief is more properly an act of the sensitive, than of the cogitative part of our natures.

Io non credo che la scienza per sé sia fonte adeguata di felicità, né credo che la mia mentalità scientifica abbia contribuito granché alla mia propria felicità. La scienza di per se stessa mi sembra neutra, essa, cioè, accresce il potere degli uomini per il bene come per il male. Una valutazione dello scopo della vita è cosa che va aggiunta alla scienza se si vuole che essa rechi felicità

Those who affirm positively that God exists cannot avoid falling into an impiety. For if they say that God controls everything, they make Him the author of evil things; if, on the other hand, they say that He controls some things only, or that He controls nothing, they are compelled to make God either grudging or impotent, and to do that is quite obviously an impiety.

This view was prevalent in Japan in the sixth century A.D., when Buddhism first reached that country. The Government, being in doubt as to the truth of the new religion, ordered one of the courtiers to adopt it experimentally; if he prospered more than the others, the religion was to be adopted universally. This is the method (with modifications to suit modern times) which the pragmatists advocate in regard to all religious controversies.

The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty.

People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

Prudence versus passion is a conflict that runs through history.

To formulate any satisfactory modern ethic of human relationships, it will be essential to recognize the necessary limitations of men's power over the non-human environment, and the desirable limitations of their power over each other.

Suffering to the criminal can never be justified by the notion of vindictive punishment. If education combined with kindness is equally effective, it is to be preferred; still more is it to be preferred if it is more effective.

Nessuno può liberarsi della Paura se non osa vedere il suo posto nel mondo così com'è; nessuno può toccare la grandezza di cui pur è capace se prima non ha la forza di vedere la sua piccolezza

This seems plainly absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities. One