"Artists are on the average less happy than men of science."
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Quote collection
Bertrand Russell quotes (page 43 of 60)
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"No rules, however wise, are a substitute for affection and tact."
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"Animal rights, taken to their logical conclusion, mean votes for oysters."
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"The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection."
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"There was a law in Connecticut - I believe it is still formally unrepealed - making it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday."
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"There is in Aristotle an almost complete absence of what may be called benevolence or philanthropy. The sufferings of mankind . . . there is no evidence that they cause him unhappiness except when the sufferers happen to be his friends."
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"There have been poverty, pestilence, and famine, which were due to man's inadequate mastery of nature. There have been wars, oppressions and tortures which have been due to men's hostility to their fellow men."
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"[There are m]oral precepts that we consider really important, such as 'don't pick your nose' or 'don't eat peas with a knife'. There may, for ought I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but . . . early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them."
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"The . . . increase in the power of officials is a constant source of irritation to everybody else."
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"Protestants, from the first, have been distinguished from their opponents by what they do not believe; to throw over one more dogma is, therefore, merely to carry the movement one stage further. Moral fervor is the essence of the matter."
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"No Carthaginian denied Moloch, because to do so would have required more courage that was required to face death in battle."
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"There are certain things that our age needs. It needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse to creativeness."
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"There are some simple maxims which I think might be commended to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. So, if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end."
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"Philosophy arises from an unusually obstinate attempt to arrive at real knowledge. What passes for knowledge in ordinary life suffers from three defects: it is cocksure, vague and self-contradictory. The first step towards philosophy consists in becoming aware of these defects, not in order to rest content with a lazy scepticism, but in order to substitute an amended kind of knowledge which shall be tentative, precise and self-consistent."
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"There are infinite possibilities of error, and more cranks take up fashionable untruths than unfashionable truths."
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"There can't be a practical reason for believing something that is not true."
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"A man is rational in proportion as his intelligence informs and controls his desires."
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"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."
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"I suppose the advocates of unreason think that there is a better chance of profitably deceiving the populace if they keep it in a state of effervescence."
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"Citizens as conceived by governments are persons who admire the status quo and are prepared to exert themselves for its preservation. Oddly enough, while all governments aim at producing men of this type to the exclusion of all other types, their heroes in the past are of exactly the sort that they aim at preventing in the present. Americans admire George Washington and Jefferson, but imprison those who share their political opinions."
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