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

Bertrand Russell

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Bertrand Russell
Age: 97 †
Born: 1872
Born: May 18
Died: 1970
Died: February 2
Analytic Philosopher
Autobiographer
Epistemologist
Essayist
Journalist
Logician
Mathematician
Metaphysician
Peace Activist
Philosopher
Tryleg
Bertrand Arthur William Russell
Russell
Bertrand Russell
3rd Earl Russell
Bertrand Russell
Earl Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell
3rd Earl Russell
Problem
Intelligence
Paradox
Foolishness
Whole
Confidence
Fools
Libertarianism
Always
Fool
Libertarian
Skeptical
Skeptic
World
Doubt
Witty
Doubts
Doubted
People
Full
Certainty
Skepticism
Fanaticism
Education
Humorous
Ironic
Fooled
Wisdom
Clever
Anarchy
Fanatics
Certain
Foolish
Wiser
Heresy

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If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.
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The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large.
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Americans need rest, but do not know it. I believe this to be a large part of the explanation of the crime wave in the United States.
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When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.
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No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor, but honest.
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Half the useful work in the world consists of combating the harmful work.
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Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.
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As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.
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The really useful education is that which follows the direction of the child's own instinctive interests, supplying knowledge for which it is seeking, not dry, detailed information wholly out of relation to its spontaneous desires.
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What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry.
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To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
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An individual human existence should be like a river
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Science, by itself cannot, supply us with an ethic.
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In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
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Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake.
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This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate.
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One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
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Neither the Church nor modern public opinion condemns petting, provided it stops short at a certain point.
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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.
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