Bertrand Russell
British philosopher and logician (1872 to 1970), also a social critic; co-author with Alfred North Whitehead of Principia Mathematica (1910 to 1913), author of The Problems of Philosophy (1912), awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
From their books The Problems of Philosophy4 korrents Proposed Roads to Freedom2 korrents What I Believe2 korrents
Bertrand Russell did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsHappiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
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Their wordsThe good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
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Their wordsIt is by its effects outside economics and politics, at least as much as by effects inside them, that a social system should be judged.
↗Proposed Roads to Freedomgutenberg.org All 2 from this book
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Their wordsThe world that we must seek is a world in which the creative spirit is alive, in which life is an adventure full of joy and hope, based rather upon the impulse to construct than upon the desire to retain what we possess or to seize what is possessed by others.
↗Proposed Roads to Freedomgutenberg.org All 2 from this book
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Their wordsThe value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.
↗The Problems of Philosophygutenberg.org All 4 from this book
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Their wordsPhilosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom.
↗The Problems of Philosophygutenberg.org All 4 from this book
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Their wordsThe impartiality which, in contemplation, is the unalloyed desire for truth, is the very same quality of mind which, in action, is justice, and in emotion is that universal love which can be given to all, and not only to those who are judged useful or admirable.
↗The Problems of Philosophygutenberg.org All 4 from this book
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Their wordsThus, to sum up our discussion of the value of philosophy; Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.
↗The Problems of Philosophygutenberg.org All 4 from this book
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.