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Bertrand Russell Quotes


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Men, quite ordinary men, will compel children to look on while their mothers are raped. In pursuit of political aims men will submit their opponents to long years of unspeakable anguish

Morally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treachery

More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

My first advice on how not to grow old would be to choose you ancestors carefully.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
[Fear]

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

Nine-tenths of the appeal of pornography is due to the indecent feelings concerning sex which moralists inculcate in the young; the other tenth is physiological, and will occur in one way or another whatever the state of the law may be.

No great achievement is possible without persistent work.

No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he believes to be of value.

No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.

No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence.

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.
[Decisions]


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