Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRSwas a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had "never been any of these things, in any profound sense". He was born in Monmouthshire into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the United Kingdom...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth18 May 1872
The first step in wisdom, as well as in morality, is to open the windows of the ego as wide as possible.
... the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.
One's work is never so bad as it appears on bad days, nor so good as it appears on good days.
We know that the exercise of virtue should be its own reward, and it seems to follow that the enduring of it on the part of the patient should be its own punishment.
We believe, first and foremost, what makes us feel that we are fine fellows.
Whether science-and indeed civilization in general-can long survive depends upon psychology, that is to say, it depends upon what human beings desire.
Answering questions is a major part of sex education. Two rules cover the ground. First, always give a truthful answer to a question; secondly, regard sex knowledge as exactly like any other knowledge.
Reason may be a small force, but it is constant, and works always in one direction, while the forces of unreason destroy one another in futile strife.
The solution of the difficulties which formerly surrounded the mathematical infinite is probably the greatest achievement of which our age has to boast.
If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
If a Black Death could be spread throughout the world once in every generation survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full.
Curious learning not only makes unpleasant things less unpleasant but also makes pleasant things more pleasant.
Abstract work, if one wishes to do it well, must be allowed to destroy one's humanity; one raises a monument which is at the same time a tomb, in which, voluntarily, one slowly inters oneself.
Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is based on the idea of approximation. If a man tells you he knows a thing exactly, then you can be safe in inferring that you are speaking to an inexact man.