> Author Index > R - Authors > Bertrand Russell Quotes

Bertrand Russell Quotes


Pages: Prev 12345678910... Next

It is obvious that 'obscenity' is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means 'anything that shocks the magistrate.'

It is only in marriage with the world that our ideals can bear fruit: divorced from it, they remain barren
[Action]

It is only the intellect that keeps me sane; perhaps this makes me overvalue intellect against feeling

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.

It is true that if we ever did stop to think about the cosmos we might find it uncomfortable. The sun may grow cold or blow up; the earth may lose its atmosphere and become uninhabitable

It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.

It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals.

It's a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

Joy of life... depends upon a certain spontaneity in regard to sex. Where sex is repressed, only work remains, and a gospel of work for work's sake never produced any work worth doing.

Law in origin was merely a codification of the power of dominant groups, and did not aim at anything that to a modern man would appear to be justice

Liberty is the right to do what I like; license, the right to do what you like.

Life is a brief, small, and transitory phenomenon in an obscure corner, not at all the sort of thing that one would make a fuss about if one were not personally concerned
[Life]

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

Love as a relation between men and women was ruined by the desire to make sure of the legitimacy of children

Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.

Love, children, and work are the great sources of fertilizing contact between the individual and the rest of the world

Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.

Man can be scientifically manipulated


Pages: Prev 12345678910... Next