It seems to me fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it’s useful and not because you think it’s true.
BERTRAND RUSSELLNeither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear.
More Bertrand Russell Quotes
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The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
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Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
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To write a tragedy, a man must feel the tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he lives. Not only with his mind, but with his blood and sinews.
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The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.
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We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.
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Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
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How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty?
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Even if all the experts agree, they may well be mistaken.
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What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
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Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts that could not exist without it.
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Mathematics rightly viewed possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.
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The secret of happiness is very simple: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
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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 paradise in a few years.
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Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
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Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
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Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
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Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.
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Machines have altered our way of life, but not our instincts. Consequently, there is maladjustment.
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I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.
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No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.
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And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt his existence.
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The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
BERTRAND RUSSELL -
None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.
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Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear.
BERTRAND RUSSELL -
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3 parts dead.
BERTRAND RUSSELL -
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.
BERTRAND RUSSELL