Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.
— Bertrand Russell
Many people when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praiseworthy.
A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.
If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.
I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.
The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.
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.
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name.
I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.
I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.
Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.
Liberty is the right to do what I like; license, the right to do what you like.
Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.
A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.
The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.
Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.
With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine.
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.
Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men.
Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
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.
Admiration of the proletariat, like that of dams, power stations, and aeroplanes, is part of the ideology of the machine age.
Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.
Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.
Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.
The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.
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.
When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.
It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.
A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.
Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.
Drunkenness is temporary suicide.
Awareness of universals is called conceiving, and a universal of which we are aware is called a concept.
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.
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.
Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.
