"In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged."
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Quote collection
Bertrand Russell quotes (page 56 of 60)
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"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"
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"... the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be."
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"One's work is never so bad as it appears on bad days, nor so good as it appears on good days."
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"It is only theory that makes men completely incautious."
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"We believe, first and foremost, what makes us feel that we are fine fellows."
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"Whether science-and indeed civilization in general-can long survive depends upon psychology, that is to say, it depends upon what human beings desire."
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"The solution of the difficulties which formerly surrounded the mathematical infinite is probably the greatest achievement of which our age has to boast."
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"It is in the nature of imperialism that citizens of the imperial power are always among the last to know-or care-about circumstances in the colonies."
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"The pure mathematician, like the musician, is a free creator of his world of ordered beauty."
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"At first it seems obvious, but the more you think about it the stranger the deductions from this axiom seem to become; in the end you cease to understand what is meant by it."
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"For a good notation has a subtlety and suggestiveness which at times make it seem almost like a live teacher."
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"Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the lure of popularity, to pursue important work in spite of general indifference or hostility, and arrive at opinions which are opposed to prevalent errors."
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"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."
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"But it is just this characteristic of simplicity in the laws of nature hitherto discovered which it would be fallacious to generalize, for it is obvious that simplicity has been a part cause of their discovery, and can, therefore, give no ground for the supposition that other undiscovered laws are equally simple."
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"In the higher walks of politics the same sort of thing occurs. The statesman who has gradually concentrated all power within himself ... may have had anything but a public motive... The phrases which are customary on the platform and in the Party Press have gradually come to him to seem to express truths, and he mistakes the rhetoric of partisanship for a genuine analysis of motives... He retires from the world after the world has retired from him."
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"It is odd that neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point. At what point sin begins is a matter as to which casuists differ. One eminently orthodox Catholic divine laid it down that a confessor may fondle a nun's breasts, provided he does it without evil intent. But I doubt whether modern authorities would agree with him on this point."
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"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."
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"The saviors of the world, society's last hope."
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"The rules of logic are to mathematics what those of structure are to architecture."
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