"To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do fo...

When a man tells you he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring he is an inexact man.
~ Bertrand Russell ~












When a man tells you he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring he is an ine...
Show MoreMore Bertrand Russell quotes
"Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.
"Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should diss...
"As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not th...
"Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but lo...
"Love is wise; hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we hav...
"Science is what you know philosophy is what you don't know.
"Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know.
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
"But without going to such extremes prudence may easily involve the loss of some of the best things in life. The worshipper of Dionysus reacts against ...
"It is evident as a matter of logic that, since they (world religions) disagree, not more than one of them can be true.
"I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now.
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
"Grammar and ordinary language are bad guides to metaphysics. A great book might be written showing the influence of syntax on philosophy.