Bertrand Arthur William Russell
Quotes
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One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues
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
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education
Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so
Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays