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...
concerned fuss life obscure personally phenomenon sort transitory
Life is a brief, small, and transitory phenomenon in an obscure corner, not at all the sort of thing that one would make a fuss about if one were not personally concerned
hated impose machines slavery valued worshipped
Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful, and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous, and loathed because they impose slavery
contact great individual rest sources work
Love, children, and work are the great sources of fertilizing contact between the individual and the rest of the world
marriage outside sex within
Sex outside marriage is sin; sex within marriage is not sin.
avoid beyond far goes necessary opinion public respect starvation submission tyranny voluntary
One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny
discovery human occasion prevent suffering
One occasion for theological intervention to prevent the mitigation of human suffering was the discovery of anesthetics
divine greater human radiance splendor
The splendor of human life, I feel sure, is greater to those who are not dazzled by the divine radiance
ends good produce results rules sought sufficient unless whatever
Rules of conduct, whatever they may be are not sufficient to produce good results unless the ends sought are good
allies below efforts fit heart hearts imaginary instead invent longer rather science teach
Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead
brings cessation happiness merely momentary temporary
Drunkenness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness
age certainty chief paralyzed perhaps philosophy study teach
To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without, being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can do for those who study it
bible next shelf
There's a Bible on the shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire-poison and antidote.
against foreign genuinely hate heroism impulses patriotic perhaps propaganda whom
You must not kill your neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little propaganda this hate can be transferred to some foreign nation, against whom all your murderous impulses become patriotic heroism
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