Quote

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

Bertrand Russell

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Freedom
Government
Thinking
Secure
Thinks
Exist
Opinion

More quotes by Bertrand Russell

Image
It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.
Bertrand Russell
Image
The late F. W. H. Myers used to tell how he asked a man at a dinner table what he thought would happen to him when he died. The man tried to ignore the question, but, on being pressed, replied: Oh well, I suppose I shall inherit eternal bliss, but I wish you wouldn't talk about such unpleasant subjects.
Bertrand Russell
Image
For my part I distrust all generalizations about women, favorable and unfavorable, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern all alike, I should say, result from paucity of experience.
Bertrand Russell
Image
One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told I have not noticed it.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Descartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.
Bertrand Russell
Image
A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.
Bertrand Russell
Image
The method of postulating what we want has many advantages they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.
Bertrand Russell
Image
It is obviously possible that what we call waking life may only be an unusual and persistent nightmare.
Bertrand Russell
Image
I say people who feel they must have a faith or religion in order to face life are showing a kind of cowardice, which in any other sphere would be considered contemptible. But when it is in the religious sphere it is thought admirable, and I cannot admire cowardice whatever sphere it is in.
Bertrand Russell
Image
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Our beliefs are, however, often contrary to fact.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Love, children, and work, are the great sources of fertilizing contact between the individual and the rest of the world.
Bertrand Russell
Image
I feel as if one would only discover on one's death bed what one ought to have lived for
Bertrand Russell
Image
Folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived.
Bertrand Russell
Image
To think I have spent my life on absolute muck.
Bertrand Russell
Image
I suggest to young professors that their first work should be written in a jargon only to be understood by the erudite few. With that behind them, they can ever after say what they have to say in a language 'understand of the people.'
Bertrand Russell
Image
Many a marriage hardly differs from prostitution, except being harder to escape from.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Orthodoxy is the grave of intelligence, no matter what orthodoxy it may be.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Indemnity for the past and security for the future.
Bertrand Russell