Tag: Bertrand Russell

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

Nothing of importance is ever achieved without discipline. I feel myself sometimes not wholly in sympathy with some modern educational theorists, because I think that they underestimate the part that discipline plays. But the discipline you have in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by society or authority.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

Our instinctive emotions are those that we have inherited from a much more dangerous world, and contain, therefore, a larger portion of fear than they should.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell

Passive acceptance of the teacher’s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

Quote, saying and phrase by: Bertrand Russell