Quotes from Bertrand Russell

The belief or unconscious conviction that all propositions are of the subject-predicate form-in other words, that every fact consists of some thing having some quality-has rendered most philosophers incapable of giving any account of the world of science and daily life.

I believe that, owning to men's folly, a world-government will only be established by force, and will therefore be at first cruel and despotic. But I believe that it is necessary for the preservation of a scientific civilization, and that, if once realized, it will gradually give rise to the other conditions of a tolerable existence.

Any theory on the principles of mathematics must always be inductive i.e. it must lie in the fact that the theory in question enables us to deduce ordinary mathematics.

every progression verifies Peano's five axioms.

There is practically no social life, partly because of the food shortage, partly because, when anybody is arrested, the police are apt to arrest everybody whom they find in his company, or who comes to visit him.

I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those who think themselves pious--for instance, the nuns who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe all the time. When asked why, since no man can see them, they reply: Oh, but you forget the good God. Apparently they conceive of the Deity add a Peeping Tom, whose omnipotence enables Him to see through bathroom walls, but who is foiled by bathrobes.

William James used to preach the "will to believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will to doubt." None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.

That is why the individual man is the bearer of good and evil, and not, on the one hand, any separate part of a man, or on the other hand, any collection of men. To believe that there can be good and evil in a collection of human beings, over and above the good or evil in the various individuals, is an error; moreover, it is an error which leads straight to totalitarianism, and is therefore dangerous.

I have found, for example, that, if I have to write upon some rather difficult topic, the best plan is to think about it with very great intensity – the greatest intensity of which I am capable—for a few hours or days, and at the end of that time give orders, so to speak, that the work is to proceed underground. After some months I return consciously to the topic and find that the work has been done.

Industrial conscription is, of course, rigidly enforced. Every man and woman has to work, and slacking is severely punished, by prison or a penal settlement.

the world would be much happier, if men were as fully able to keep silence as they are to speak.

KuÅŸkuculuk ac? verici olabilir, k?s?r olabilir ama en az?ndan dürüsttür ve hakikat aray???n?n bir sonucudur. Belki de geçici bir evre olabilir ama içinde bulunduÄŸumuz çaÄŸdan daha büyük aptall?klar?n yaÅŸand??? bir ça??n ?skartaya ç?km?? inançlar?na geri dönerek daha hakiki bir kaç?? olana?? yaratmak mümkün deÄŸildir.

Ä°lahiyatç?lar küçük ÅŸeyler için ÅŸükretmeye al??m??t?r ve bilimciler onlara bir tanr? verdikleri sürece bunun nas?l bir tanr? olduÄŸunu pek umursamazlar.

Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right distributed throughout the community

It can be shown that a mathematical web of some kind can be woven about any universe containing several objects. The fact that our universe lends itself to mathematical treatment is not a fact of any great philosophical significance.

The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery

I think that these is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it [on Goodreads]." - Bertrand Russell

More erudite authors who advocate an irrationalist point of view, such as the pragmatist philosophers, are not to be caught out so easily. They maintain that there is no such thing as objective fact to which our opinions must conform if they are to be true. For them opinions are merely weapons in the struggle for existence, and those which help a man to survive are to be called "true.

first, pure persuasion leading to the conversion of a minority; then force exerted to secure that the rest of the community shall be exposed to the right propaganda; and finally a genuine belief on the part of the great majority, which makes the use of force again unnecessary.

See the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it!

The 'practical' man... is one who recognizes only material needs, who realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the necessity of providing food for the mind.

El autor anónimo de estos versos no buscaba una solución para el ateísmo, ni la clave del universo; estaba simplemente pasándoselo bien.

Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs.