1,551 Quotes by Bertrand Russell

Unrestricted nationalism is, in the long run, incompatible with world peace.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise.

[Regarding] the convention that clergymen are more virtuous than other men. Any average selection of mankind, set apart and told that it excels the rest in virtue, must tend to sink below the average.

America ... where laws and customs alike are based on the dreams of spinsters.

If we compare Europe with other continents, it is marked out as [another] persecuting continent.

Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?

I do not believe that I am now dreaming, but I cannot prove that I am not. I am, however, quite certain that I am having certain experiences, whether they be those of a dream or those of waking life.

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.