Top 132 Quotes by Bertrand Russell

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

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

Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because, like Spinoza's God, it won't love us in return.

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

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.

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

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

Admiration of the proletariat, like that of dams, power stations, and aeroplanes, is part of the ideology of the machine age.