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We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.

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
Much
Science
Stills
Power
Give
Still
Astonishing
Littles
Engineering
Little
Philosophical
Giving
Knowledge

More quotes by Bertrand Russell

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Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do great harm.
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Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
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(on A History of Western Philosophy) I was sometimes accused by reviewers of writing not a true history but a biased account of the events that I arbitrarily chose to write of. But to my mind, a man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if, indeed, such man exists.
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Only in thought is man a God in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance.
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The sentiments of an adult are compounded of a kernel of instinct surrounded by a vast husk of education.
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I have throughout been curious about how much we can be said to know and with what degree of certainty or doubtfulness.
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Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.
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Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them.
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We must be skeptical even of our skepticism.
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The method of postulating what we want has many advantages they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.
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Upon hearing via Littlewood an exposition on the theory of relativity: To think I have spent my life on absolute muck.
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All the important human advances that we know of since historical times began have been due to individuals of whom the majority faced virulent public opposition.
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Too little liberty brings stagnation, and too much brings chaos.
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A generation educated in fearless freedom will have wider and bolder hopes than are possible to us
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A man is rational in proportion as his intelligence informs and controls his desires.
Bertrand Russell
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I think it would be just to say the most essential characteristic of mind is memory, using this word in its broadest sense to include every influence of past experience on present reactions.
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Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of political events.
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The wise man will be as happy as circumstances permit, and if he finds the contemplation of the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else instead.
Bertrand Russell
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By self-interest, Man has become gregarious, but in instinct he has remained to a great extent solitary hence the need of religion and morality to reinforce self-interest.
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Force plays a much larger part in the government of the world than it did before 1914, and what is especially alarming, force tends increasingly to fall into the hands of those who are enemies of civilization.
Bertrand Russell