WIST

History is invaluable in increasing our knowledge of human nature because it shows how people may be expected to behave in new situations. Many prominent men and women are completely ordinary in character and only exceptional in their circumstances.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Understanding History, And Other Essays, “How to Read and Understand History” (1957)

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?” (1947)

Full text.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish” (1943)

Be very wary of opinions that flatter your self-esteem.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)

Man is a rational animal — so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)

More cranks take up unfashionable errors than unfashionable truths.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish,” Unpopular Essays (1950)

When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Atheism and Agnosticism,” Essays in Skepticism (1962)

We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one that we preach, but do not practice, and another that we practice, but seldom preach.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness,” Sceptical Essays (1928)

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Free Thought and Official Propaganda,” lecture, South Place Institute, London (24 Mar 1922)
Full text

It is clear that the most elementary condition, if thought is to be free, is the absence of legal penalties for the expression of opinions. No great country has yet reached to this level, although most of them think they have. The opinions which are still persecuted strike the majority as so monstrous and immoral that the general principle of toleration can not be held to apply to them. But this is exactly the same view as that which made possible the tortures of the Inquisition. There was a time when Protestantism seemed as wicked as Bolshevism seems now.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Free Thought and Official Propaganda,” lecture, South Place Institute, London (24 Mar 1922)

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Freedom and Government” (1940)

One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind,” Unpopular Essays (1950)

To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error. If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. He did not do so because he thought he knew. Thinking that you know when in fact you don’t is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do; but if I were writing a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not commit myself until I had seen one enjoying this unappetizing diet.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Intellectual Rubbish,” Essays in Skepticism (1962)

Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Is There a God?” (1952)
Full essay

All movements go too far.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Being Modern-Minded,” The Nation (9 Jan 1937)
In context.

Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Education, Especially in Early Childhood” (1926)

Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when widespread, produce social disaster.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Education, Especially in Early Childhood” (1926)

In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Education, Especially in Early Childhood” (1926)

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On Scientific Method in Philosophy,” Mysticism and Logic (1918)

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

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“On the Value of Scepticism” (1928)

The essay appeared in The Will to Doubt and in Skeptical Essays, ch. 1 (1928).  Full text.

We are now again in an epoch of wars of religion, but a religion is now called an “ideology.”

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Philosophy and Politics,” Unpopular Essays (1950)

The widespread interest in gossip is inspired, not by a love of knowledge, but by malice: no one gossips about other people’s secret virtues, but only about their secret vices. Accordingly most gossip is untrue, but care is taken not to verify it. Our neighbour’s sins, like the consolations of religion, are so agreeable that we do not stop to scrutinize the evidence closely.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Aims of Education” (1929)
Usually shortened to "No one gossips about other people's secret virtues." Full text.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Best Answers to Fanaticism,” New York Times, “A Liberal Decalogue,” Commandment 7 (16 Dec 1951)
Full text.

One who believes as I do, that free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism as much as to the Church of Rome. The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism” (1920)

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933)
Often paraphrased, "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent are full of doubt."

The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts — the less you know the hotter you get.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
(Attributed)

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
(Attributed)

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
(Attributed)

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
(Misattributed)

Attributed to many modern authors, including John Lennon,  T. S. Elliot, Lawrence J. Peter, and  Soren Kierkegaard. Most often attributed to Russell. it is actually a comment/interpretation by Peter in Peter's Quotations about a different Russell quote ("The thing that I should wish to obtain from money would be leisure with security"). In turn, the words were not original with Peter. More information.

A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
A History of Western Philosophy, Bk. I, Part II, ch. 11 “Socrates” (1945)