Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
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...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth18 May 1872
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
What will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health, if no one remembers how to use them?
One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will.
To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.
War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.
Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.
Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that is happiness.
Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.
An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.