Bertrand Russell Quotes

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

~ Bertrand Russell

In conclusion, there is a marvelous anecdote from the occasion of Russell's ninetieth birthday that best serves to summarize his attitude toward God and religion. A London lady sat next to him at this party, and over the soup she suggested to him that he was not only the world's most famous atheist but, by this time, very probably the world's oldest atheist. "What will you do, Bertie, if it turns out you're wrong?" she asked. "I mean, what if -- uh -- when the time comes, you should meet Him? What will you say?" Russell was delighted with the question. His bright, birdlike eyes grew even brighter as he contemplated this possible future dialogue, and then he pointed a finger upward and cried, "Why, I should say, 'God, you gave us insufficient evidence.'"

~ Bertrand Russell

- Al Seckel, in Preface to Bertrand Russell on God and Religion

What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

~ Bertrand Russell

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

~ Bertrand Russell

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

~ Bertrand Russell

The psychology of adultery has been falsified by conventional morals, which assume, in monogamous countries, that attraction to one person cannot coexist with affection for another. Everybody know that this is untrue.

~ Bertrand Russell

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

~ Bertrand Russell

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. The first is unpleasant and ill-paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.

~ Bertrand Russell

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

~ Bertrand Russell

If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.

~ Bertrand Russell

Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent.

~ Bertrand Russell

Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity.

~ Bertrand Russell

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

~ Bertrand Russell

Most people would rather die than think: many do.

~ Bertrand Russell

All human activity is prompted by desire.

~ Bertrand Russell

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

~ Bertrand Russell

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

~ Bertrand Russell

- On Education, 1926

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensible part of happiness.

~ Bertrand Russell

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.

~ Bertrand Russell

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

~ Bertrand Russell

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

~ Bertrand Russell

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.

~ Bertrand Russell

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

~ Bertrand Russell

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.

~ Bertrand Russell