Bertrand Arthur William Russell Quotes

Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.

Science is what you know; philosophy what you don't know.

Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted? Or does (such a society) necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?

The habit of looking into the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. There can be no value in the whole unless there is value in the parts.

nizing a mass massacre of mankind.

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.

Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.

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.

The degree of one's emotions varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts -- the less you know the hotter you get.