Bertrand Russel
Bertrand Russel
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRSwas a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had "never been any of these things, in any profound sense". He was born in Monmouthshire into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the United Kingdom...
knows mathematics nor science talking true whether
Mathematics is the only science where one never knows what one is talking about nor whether what is said is true
created man neither woman
The man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for a man
conceive good happy mean
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.
dying talk
Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.
discovered foreigners man members regards savage studied view
The completely untravelled person will view all foreigners as the savage regards the members of another herd. But the man who has travelled, or who has studied international politics, will have discovered that, if he had to prosper, it must, to some
austen difficulty excitement expects heroine jane lasted less meet men novel throughout week women
Young men and young women meet each other with much less difficulty than was formerly the case, and every housemaid expects at least once a week as much excitement as would have lasted a Jane Austen heroine throughout a whole novel
derive england illegal pleasure print sexual state wife
It is illegal in England to state in print that a wife can and should derive sexual pleasure from intercourse
folly human perennial race
Folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived.
adultery chase commit courtship easily gratified hunting husband manage savage stage suppose war woman
specially in males. I suppose that in the hunting stage it was more easily gratified than it has been since. The chase was exciting, war was exciting, courtship was exciting. A savage would manage to commit adultery with a woman while her husband is
conceived found god highest reality
God is a reality of spirit... He cannot... be conceived as an object, not even as the very highest object. God is not to be found in the world of objects.
action adequate cannot creed majority nonsense vast
There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action
admitted believe communion needs pattern purgatory scientific socrates
The Platonic Socrates was a pattern to subsequent Philosophers for many ages. As a man, we may believe him admitted to the communion of saints; but as a philosopher he needs a long residence in a scientific purgatory
certainty men
What men want is not knowledge, but certainty.
accept acting affords against believes desires evidence explained fact goes himself man myths offered origin reason refuse slightest unless
What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.