1,551 Quotes by Bertrand Russell

One of the chief triumphs of modern mathematics consists in having discovered what mathematics really is.

To expect a personality to survive the disintegration of the brain is like expecting a cricket club to survive when all of its members are dead.

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.

Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable, at least in its main outlines.

Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity.

What has human happiness to do with morals? The object of morals is not to make people happy.

I often long to . . . give up my life to love of my neighbour. This is really a temptation.