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Alcohol/Alcoholism
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Drunkenness is temporary suicide.
-Bertrand Russell
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Anger
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Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.
-Bertrand Russell
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Animals
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No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.
-Bertrand Russell
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Argument & Debate
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The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
-Bertrand Russell
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Atheism
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Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?
-Bertrand Russell
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Authors & Writing
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I am paid by the word, so I always write the shortest words possible.
-Bertrand Russell
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Belief
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When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favor of the belief which he finds in himself.
-Bertrand Russell
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What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out.
-Bertrand Russell
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What makes a belief true or false I call a fact. The particular fact that makes a given belief true or false I call its objective, and the relation of the belief to its objective I call the reference or the objective reference of the belief. Thus, if I believe that Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492, the objective of my belief is Columbus's actual voyage, and the reference of my belief is the relation between my belief and the voyage--that relation, namely, in virtue of which the voyage makes my belief true (or, in another case, false). Reference of beliefs differs from meaning of words in various ways, but especially in the fact that it is of two kinds, true reference and false reference. The truth or falsehood of a belief does not depend upon anything intrinsic to the belief, but upon the nature of its relation to its objective. The intrinsic nature of belief can be treated without reference to what makes it true or false.
http://www.literaturepage.com/read/russell-analysis-of-mind-165.html
-Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind, Lecture XII. Belief
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Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
-Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
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Boredom
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Unless one is taught what to do with success after getting it, achievement of it must inevitably leave him prey to boredom.
-Bertrand Russell
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Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
-Bertrand Russell
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Capitalism
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Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
-Bertrand Russell
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Caution
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Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
-Bertrand Russell
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Certainty
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What men want is not knowledge, but certainty.
-Bertrand Russell
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Chance
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If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.
-Bertrand Russell
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Change
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All movements go too far, and this is certainly true of the movement toward subjectivity, which began with Luther and Descartes as an assertion of the individual and has culminated by an inherent logic in his complete subjection. The subjectivity of truth is a hasty doctrine not validly deducible from the premises which have been thought to imply it; and the habits of centuries have made many things seem dependent upon the theological belief which in fact are not so. Men lived with one kind of illusion, and when they lost it they fell into another. But it is not by old error that new error can be combated. Detachment and objectivity, both in thought and in feeling, have been historically but not logically associated with certain traditional beliefs; to preserve them without these beliefs is both possible and important. A certain degree of isolation both in space and time is essential to generate the independence required for the most important work; there must be something which is felt to be of more importance than the admiration of the contemporary crowd. We are suffering not from the decay of theological beliefs but from the loss of solitude.
-Bertrand Russell, On Being Modern-Minded (essay), "The Nation", January 9, 1937
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Computers
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There will still be things that machines cannot do. They will not produce great art or great literature or great philosophy; they will not be able to discover the secret springs of happiness in the human heart; they will know nothing of love and friendship.
-Bertrand Russell
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Consumerism
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Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
-Bertrand Russell
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
-Bertrand Russell
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Contentment
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The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith.
-Bertrand Russell
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Conversation
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To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
-Bertrand Russell
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Crime
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Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
-Bertrand Russell
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Death
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Most people would rather die than think: many do.
-Bertrand Russell
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Desires
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All human activity is prompted by desire.
-Bertrand Russell
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Books by and about Bertrand Russell