Bertrand Russell Quotes

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.

Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so.