Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970,) fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, was a British philosopher, mathematician, logician, social critic, and peace activist. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of analytic philosophy, which is today the dominant philosophical tradition in the English-speaking world.

Russell was born in Trellech, Wales, into a prominent aristocratic family. His parents were radical thinkers, his father an atheist. After his parents died, Russell was raised by his grandparents in a strict Christian household. As a teenager, he kept a diary describing his doubts about God and his ideas about free will. He wrote his diary in Greek letters so his conservative family couldn’t read it.

Russell studied mathematics and philosophy at Cambridge and later returned as a fellow and lecturer. In Principia Mathematica (1910–13,) he and the British mathematician Alfred North Whitehead attempted to express all of mathematics in formal logic terms. Russell’s most significant and famous idea, the theory of descriptions, had profound consequences for his discipline. He further expounded logical atomism in Our Knowledge of the External World (1914) and neutral monism in The Analysis of Mind (1921.)

As one of the greatest public intellectuals of the 20th century, he was active in many social and political campaigns until his death. In reaction to World War I, he became a radical pacifist, incurring government fines, a dismissal from Cambridge, and finally, a six-month prison sentence. He supported women’s suffrage and advocated against nuclear weapons.

In 1944, Russell returned to England and was re-elected as a fellow of Trinity College-Cambridge. In 1950, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for “his many-sided and significant writings, in which he appeared as the champion of humanity and freedom of thought.”

Russell’s enduring works shaped the face of 20th-century British philosophy. He wrote several books aimed at the public, including the bestselling The History of Western Philosophy (1945.) His other notable works include Problems of Philosophy (1912,) The Analysis of Mind (1921,) and Roads to Freedom (1918.)

Russell was a famous would-be-atheist and a confirmed agnostic—his agnosticism was reinforced by his recognition that the word “religion” does not have a definite meaning. His well-known lecture Why I Am Not A Christian (1927) remains, to this day, a definitive, nearly creedal, proclamation of his commitment to atheism. Russell described God’s existence as “a large and serious question.” He rejected some of the classical theistic arguments (the first cause argument, the design argument, and the moral argument) for lack of evidence.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Bertrand A. Russell

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Opinion, Opinions, Truth

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Knowledge, Pleasure

I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out. Religion is based . . . mainly on fear . . . fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.
—Bertrand A. Russell

With civilized men…, it is, I think, chiefly love of excitement which makes the populace applaud when war breaks out; the emotion is exactly the same as at a football match, although the results are sometimes somewhat more serious.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: War

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the 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 A. Russell
Topics: Work

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Morality, Bores, Boredom

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Golf, Family

By religion I mean a set of beliefs held as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, going beyond or contrary to evidence, and inculcated by methods which are emotional or authoritarian, not intellectual
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Religion

Civilized life has altogether grown too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide a harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Hunting

The difficulty is old, but none the less real. An omnipotent being who created a world containing evil not due to sin must Himself be at least partially evil.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: God

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Vice, Religion

Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself…. When we compare the (present) human population of the globe with … that of former times, we see that “chemical imperialism” has been … the main end to which human intelligence has been devoted.
—Bertrand A. Russell

Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Facts, Truth

Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people’s happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Happiness

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: One liners, Education, Ignorance, Men, Stupidity

Religion and Science are two aspects of social life, of which the former has been important as far back as we know anything of man
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Science

It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a reat hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future ominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Inspiration

One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Vanity

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Gossip, Secrets, Vice

The fundamental defect with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Father, Fathers

No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Animals

To the young I should offer two maxims: Don’t accept superficial solutions of difficult problems. It is better to do a little good than much harm. I should not offer anything more specific; every young person should decide on his or her own credo.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Youth

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Government

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Mathematics

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Racism

The qualities most needed are charity and tolerance, not some form of fanatical faith such as is offered to us by the various rampant isms.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Quality

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 A. Russell
Topics: Civilization

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modem world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Ignorance, Intelligence, Stupidity

The root of the matter… the thing I mean… is love, Christian love, or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide for action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Love

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
—Bertrand A. Russell
Topics: Capitalism

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