1,551 Quotes by Bertrand Russell

Religion and Science are two aspects of social life, of which the former has been important as far back as we know anything of man

It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.

War doesn't determine who's right, it determines who's left

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.

Very many people spend money in ways quite different from those that their natural tastes would enjoin, merely because the respect of their neighbors depends upon their possession of a good car and their ability to give good dinners. As a matter of fact, any man who can obviously afford a car but genuinely prefers travels or a good library will in the end be much more respected than if he behaved exactly like everyone else.

I am allowed to use plain English because everybody knows that I could use mathematical logic if I chose.

Science seems to be at war with itself.... Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

His wit and irony - particularly when he uses them to condemn superstition - are inimitable