Bertrand Russell quotes
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Bertrand Russell Quotes



Quotes by Bertrand Russell - (32 quotes)

Bertrand Russell - From the Beauty category:

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Belief category:

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Belief category:

- The Triumph of Stupidity, published in 1933...
In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Books category:

There are two reasons for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it, the other that you can boast about it. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Boredom category:

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist since half the sins of mankind are caused by fear of it. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Colour category:

The painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking that things seem to have the color which common sense says they 'really' have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Curiosity category:

I have throughout been curious about how much we can be said to know and with what degree of certainty or doubtfulness. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Doubt category:

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Eccentricity category:

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Envy category:

Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Exhaustion category:

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Fear category:

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Happiness category:

Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Happiness category:

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Health category:

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Indolence category:

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Joy category:

Mirth is like a flash of lightening that breaks through a gloom of clouds and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Knowledge category:

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Language category:

Language serves not only to express thoughts, but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Life category:

To be happy in the world, it is necessary to feel oneself part of the stream of life flowing from the first germ to the remote and unknown future. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Music category:

You could live without the opera singer, but not without the services of the baker. On this ground you might say that the baker performs a greater service; but no lover of music would agree. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Mysteries category:

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Nature category:

Mankind is divided into two classes: those who, being artificial, praise nature, and those who, being natural, praise art. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Opposites category:

I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Persistence category:

No great achievement is possible without persistent work. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Questions category:

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Success category:

Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it must inevitably leave him prey to boredom. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Thinking category:

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Tyranny category:

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Wisdom category:

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Words category:

I am paid by the word, so I always write the shortest words possible. (Bertrand Russell)

Bertrand Russell - From the Work category:

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first is unpleasant and ill-paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. (Bertrand Russell)