30 quotes by Bertrand Russell to get to know his philosophy better

The more a man seeks only to be admired, the further he is from achieving his goal.

Life is too short to allow us to be interested in everything, but it is good to be interested in as many as necessary to fill our days.

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

Opinions held passionately are those for which there is no good justification.

The human heart, as modern civilization has shaped it, is more inclined to hate than to brotherhood.

The problem with the world is that the stupid are overconfident, and the smart are full of doubts.

Man today, in order to be saved, needs only one thing: to open his heart to joy.

Don’t be afraid to hold eccentric opinions, for all opinions accepted today were once considered eccentric.

Many men make the mistake of substituting knowledge for the assertion that what they desire is true.

Love is an experience by which our whole being is renewed and refreshed as plants are by rain after drought.

Few people can be happy unless they hate someone.

The trick of philosophy is to start with something so simple that no one finds it noteworthy and end up with something so complex that no one understands.

The fundamental defect of parents is that they want their children to be a cause of glory for them.

Stupidity puts itself in the front row to be seen; intelligence stands in the rear to see.

Even when all the experts are in agreement, they may well be wrong.

What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

Humanity has a double moral: one that preaches but does not practice, another that practices but does not preach.

Three passions, simple but irresistibly strong, govern my life: the immense desire to love; the search for knowledge and the unbearable compassion for the suffering of humanity.

It is the ambition to possess, more than anything else, that prevents men from living in a free and noble way.

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

Our parents love us because we are their children, it is an unalterable fact. In times of success, this may seem irrelevant, but in times of failure, they offer a comfort and security not found anywhere else.

What we need is not the will to believe, but the will to discover.

Not having some of the things we desire is an indispensable part of happiness.

The more motives of interest a man has, the more occasions he also has to be happy and the less he is at the mercy of fate, for if he loses one he can immediately resort to another.

I would never die for my beliefs, because they could be wrong.

If everyone were given the magical power to read others’ thoughts, I suppose the first result would be the disappearance of all friendship.

Much of the greatest harm that man has inflicted on man has arisen from people who felt absolutely right about something that, in reality, was false.

Most people would rather die than think; in fact, that’s what they do.

One of the painful paradoxes of our time resides in the fact that it is the stupid who are sure, while those who have imagination and intelligence struggle with doubts and indecision.