1872 - 1970
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher, mathematician, and prominent social critic. Known for his work in logic, philosophy of mathematics, and advocacy for peace and human rights, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 for his significant contributions to literature and for his fearless efforts to confront the pressing issues of his time.
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
Admiration of the proletariat, like that of dams, power stations, and aeroplanes, is part of the ideology of the machine age.
The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.
People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people is a secondary consideration.
To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
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 for those who study it.
The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.
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.
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
The ability to intelligently fill your free time is the highest degree of personal culture.
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are so certain of themselves and wiser people are so full of doubts.
Science is what we know, and philosophy is what we don't know.