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
This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.
No Carthaginian denied Moloch, because to do so would have required more courage that was required to face death in battle.
The wise man will be as happy as circumstances permit, and if he finds the contemplation of the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else instead.
If everything has a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just be the world as God...
The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
The world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. For my part, I find accident a less painful and more plausible hypothesis.
No opinion has ever been too errant to become a creed.
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists - that is why they invented hell.
[There has been] every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
The more intense has been the religion of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs.
Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.
Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.
The immense majority of intellectually eminent men disbelieve in the Christian religion, but they conceal the fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their incomes.