Bertrand Russell Quotes

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
Bertrand Russell
I have been merely oppressed by the weariness and tedium and vanity of things lately: nothing stirs me, nothing seems worth doing or worth having done: the only thing that I strongly feel worth while would be to murder as many people as possible so as to diminish the amount of consciousness in the world. These times have to be lived through: there is nothing to be done with them.
Bertrand Russell
One of the causes of unhappiness among intellectuals in the present day is that so many of them, especially those whose skill is literary, find no opportunity for the independent exercise of their talents, but have to hire themselves out to rich corporations directed by Philistines, who insist upon their producing what they themselves regard as pernicious nonsense. If you were to inquire among journalists in either England or America whether they believed in the policy of the newspaper for which they worked, you would find, I believe, that only a small minority do so; the rest, for the sake of a livelihood, prostitute their skill to purposes which they believe to be harmful. Such work cannot bring any real satisfaction, and in the course of reconciling himself to the doing of it, a man has to make himself so cynical that he can no longer derive whole-hearted satisfaction from anything whatever. I cannot condemn men who undertake work of this sort, since starvation is too serious an alternative, but I think that where it is possible to do work that is satisfactory to man’s constructive impulses without entirely starving, he will be well advised from the point of view of his own happiness if he chooses it in preference to work much more highly paid but not seeming to him worth doing on its own account. Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect.
Bertrand Russell
The accusation of metaphysics has become in philosophy something like the accusation of being a security risk in the public service. I do not for my part know what is meant by the word 'metaphysics'. The only definition I have found that fits all cases is: 'a philosophical opinion not held by the present author'.
Bertrand Russell
A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.
Bertrand Russell
Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run and for most men this comes chiefly through their work.
Bertrand Russell
Work is of two kinds: first altering a position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter second telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill-paid the second is pleasant and highly paid.
Bertrand Russell
No matter how eloquently a dog may bark he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest.
Bertrand Russell
Simpson succeeded in proving that there was no harm in giving anaesthetics to men because God put Adam into a deep sleep when He extracted his rib. But male ecclesiastics remained unconvinced as regards the sufferings of women at any rate in childbirth.
Bertrand Russell
Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness it is a sign of emotional failure.
Bertrand Russell
All movements go too far.
Bertrand Russell
The habit of looking into the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. There can be no value in the whole unless there is value in the parts.
Bertrand Russell
One must care about a world one will not see.
Bertrand Russell
Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it the achievement of it must inevitably leave him a prey to boredom.
Bertrand Russell
Men who are unhappy like men who sleep badly are always proud of the fact.
Bertrand Russell
Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.
Bertrand Russell
Real life is to most men ... a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.
Bertrand Russell
What men want is not knowledge but certainty.
Bertrand Russell
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is very important.
Bertrand Russell
I do not believe that any peacock envies another peacock his tail because every peacock is persuaded that his own tail is the finest in the world. The consequence of this is that peacocks are peaceable birds.
Bertrand Russell
To teach how to live with uncertainty and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.
Bertrand Russell
Three passions simple but overwhelmingly strong have governed my life: the longing for love the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
Bertrand Russell
Science is what you know philosophy is what you don't know.
Bertrand Russell
The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
Bertrand Russell
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Bertrand Russell
It is preoccupation with possession more than anything else that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
Bertrand Russell
Beggars do not envy millionaires though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
Bertrand Russell
One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
Bertrand Russell
Real life is to most men ... a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.
Bertrand Russell
What men want is not knowledge but certainty.
Bertrand Russell
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is very important.
Bertrand Russell
I do not believe that any peacock envies another peacock his tail because every peacock is persuaded that his own tail is the finest in the world. The consequence of this is that peacocks are peaceable birds.
Bertrand Russell
To teach how to live with uncertainty and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.
Bertrand Russell
Three passions simple but overwhelmingly strong have governed my life: the longing for love the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
Bertrand Russell
Science is what you know philosophy is what you don't know.
Bertrand Russell
The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
Bertrand Russell
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Bertrand Russell
It is preoccupation with possession more than anything else that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
Bertrand Russell
Beggars do not envy millionaires though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
Bertrand Russell
One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
Bertrand Russell
We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and the other which we practice but seldom preach.
Bertrand Russell
There was never any reason to believe in any innate superiority of the male except his superior muscle.
Bertrand Russell
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
Bertrand Russell
The secret of happiness is this: Let your interests be as wide as possible and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
Bertrand Russell
To fear love is to fear life and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Bertrand Russell
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.
Bertrand Russell
Real life is to most men a long second best a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.
Bertrand Russell
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
Bertrand Russell
In all affairs love religion politics or business it's a healthy idea now and then to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted.
Bertrand Russell
A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked not be endured with patient resignation.
Bertrand Russell
Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.
Bertrand Russell
Man needs for his happiness not only the enjoyment of this or that but hope and enterprise and change.
Bertrand Russell
Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person nation or creed.
Bertrand Russell
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.
Bertrand Russell
Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run and for most men this comes chiefly through their work.
Bertrand Russell
If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.
Bertrand Russell
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
Bertrand Russell
A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked not endured with patient resignation.
Bertrand Russell
If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.
Bertrand Russell
All forms of fear produce fatigue.
Bertrand Russell