The quotations of

Bertrand Russell

British philosopher and logician

1872–1970

105 quotes, most often on Anti-Religion, Philosophy and Thinking. Part of the Philosophers collection.

Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.
Marriage and Morals (1929)
- Love
War does not determine who is right⁠—only who is left.
- War & Peace
I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion is anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
Why I Am Not a Christian (1927), “The Emotional Factor”
- Anti-Religion
What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires⁠—desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
Proposed Roads To Freedom (1918), Ch. VI: International relations, p. 97
- Anti-Religion
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Unpopular Essays, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1950).
- Fear
- Wisdom
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (1918)
- Philosophy
Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.
- Love
A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.
Authority and the Individual (1949)
- Risk
Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.
- Thinking
Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918), Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic
- Good & Evil
- Morality
To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do.
A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Introductory, p. xiv.
- Philosophy
The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts: the less you know the hotter you get.
Attributed to Russell in Distilled Wisdom (1964) by Alfred Armand Montapert, p. 145
- Anger
- Facts
A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
A History of Western Philosophy (1945)
- Intelligence
- Talking
Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable, at least in its main outlines.
Unpopular Essays (1950), Chapter IV, Part iii, p. 74.
- Philosophy
Those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Marriage and Morals (1929)
- Fear

More philosophers

All 12 philosophers

Aristotle384–322 BC65 quotes

Confucius551–479 BC28 quotes

Socrates470–399 BC34 quotes

Gautama Buddha501–501 BC25 quotes YYoda2 quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche1844–190070 quotes