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" The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell. "

Bertrand Russell

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" The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them. "

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" There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. "

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" Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical. "

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" Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century. "

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" The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics. "

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" We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. "

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" Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. "

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" 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. "

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" Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. "

Bertrand Russell

" A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known. "

Bertrand Russell

" Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one. "

Bertrand Russell

" There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less. "

Bertrand Russell

" 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. "

Bertrand Russell

" The secret of happiness is this: 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. "

Bertrand Russell

" Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires. "

Bertrand Russell

" The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause. "

Bertrand Russell

" There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. "

Bertrand Russell

" 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. "

Bertrand Russell

" In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards. "

Bertrand Russell

" To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it. "

Bertrand Russell

" 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. "

Bertrand Russell

" A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it. "

Bertrand Russell

" Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. "

Bertrand Russell

" The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. "

Bertrand Russell

" Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power. "

Bertrand Russell

" I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. "

Bertrand Russell

" The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history. "

Bertrand Russell

" To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name. "

Bertrand Russell

" Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so. "

Bertrand Russell

" What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. "

Bertrand Russell