Quotes from Bertrand Russell

It is in the moments when the mind is most active and the fewest things are forgotten that the most intense joys are experienced.

We can be sure, he [Kant] says, that anything we shall ever experience must show the characteristics affirmed of it in our a priori knowledge, because these characteristics are due to our own nature, and therefore nothing can ever come into our experience without acquiring these characteristics.

Sin duda el ideal es una cierta rigidez de acción, más una cierta flexibilidad de pensamiento, pero esto es difícil de lograr en la práctica excepto durante los breves períodos de transición. Y parece probable que, si las viejas ortodoxias decaen, surjan nuevos códigos rígidos según las necesidades del conflicto.

Imagination is the goad that forces human beings into restless exertion after their primary needs have been satisfied.

The drunkard who sees snakes does not imagine, afterwards, that he has had a revelation of a reality hidden from others […]. From a scientific point of view, we can make no distinction between the man who eats little and sees heaven and the man who drinks much and sees snakes.

most holders of authority were bigoted, illogical and not to be taken seriously. I

While animals are content with existence and reproduction, men desire also to expand, and their desires in this respect are limited only by what imagination suggests as possible.

If it is the devil that tempts the young to enjoy themselves, is it not the same personage that persuades the old to condemn their enjoyment? And is not condemnation perhaps merely a form of excitement appropriate to old age?

It may be laid down broadly that irrationalism, i.e. disbelief in objective fact, arises almost always from the desire to assert something for which there is no evidence, or to deny something for which there is very good evidence.

To such a man [without philosophy] the world tends to become definite, finite, and obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected.

For either death is a dreamless sleep—which is plainly good—or the soul migrates to another world.

If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.

If philosophy is to serve a positive purpose, it must not teach mere skepticism, for, while the dogmatist is harmful, the skeptic is useless. Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance.

It seems natural to suppose that self-consciousness is one of the things that distinguish men from animals: animals, we may suppose, though they have acquaintance with sense-data, never become aware of this acquaintance.

When I said that the good life consists of love guided by knowledge, the desire which prompted me was the desire to live such a life as far as possible, and to see others living it; and the logical content of the statement is that, in a community where men live in this way, more desires will be satisfied than in one where there is less love or less knowledge.

Uno de los aspectos más dolorosos de nuestros tiempos es que los estúpidos están muy seguros de sí mismos mientras los inteligentes están llenos de dudas

That Plato's Republic should have been admired, on its political side, by decent people is perhaps the most astonishing example of literary snobbery in all history.

In such a life [of private interests] there is something feverish and confined, in comparison with which the philosophic life is calm and free.

All the governments of the world adopt elaborate methods of concealing truths which they consider undesirable, and inflict various forms of penalty upon those who spread knowledge which is thought bad for the population. This applies especially to knowledge of the kind which is considered seditious, and the kind which is considered obscene.

diktatörlüÄŸün baÅŸlang?çtaki amaçlar?nda iyi diye ne varsa despotizmin kaç?n?lmaz mant??? dolay?s?yla bunlar?n tümü yok olacak ve dikta iktidar?n? koruma amac?, devlet mekanizmas?n?n yal?n amac? olarak gitgide daha güçlü bir biçimde ortaya ç?kacakt?r...

Unless we can so enlarge our interests as to include the whole outer world, we remain like a garrison in the beleaguered fortress, knowing that the enemy prevents escape and that ultimate surrender is inevitable.

Philosophic contemplation does not, in its widest survey, divide the universe into two hostile camps -- friends and foes, helpful and hostile, good and bad -- it views the whole impartially.

Sometimes, if pious men are to be believed, God's mercies are curiously selective.

Every civilised man or woman has, I suppose, some picture of himself or herself, and is annoyed when anything happens that seems to spoil this picture. The best cure is to have not only one picture, but a whole gallery, and to select the one appropriate to the incident in question. If some of the portraits are a trifle laughable, so much the better; it is not wise to see oneself all day long as a hero of high tragedy.