More Quotes by Bertrand Russell
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.
There have been poverty, pestilence, and famine, which were due to man's inadequate mastery of nature. There have been wars, oppressions and tortures which have been due to men's hostility to their fellow men.
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.
None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.
If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.
Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.
