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The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

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
Knowledge
Majority
Sensible
Whatever
Evidence
Absurd
Religion
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Foolish
Silliness
Fact
Mankind
Held
Skeptic
Science
Views
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Widely
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Learning
Spread
Skeptical
Opinion
Indeed
Parenting
Belief
Intelligence
Utterly

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Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.
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We are all prone to the malady of the introvert who with the manifold spectacle of the world spread out before him, turns away and gazes only upon the emptiness within.
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I conclude that, while it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.
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The luxury to disparage freedom is the privilege of those who already possess it.
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Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that is happiness.
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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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Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.
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To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.
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Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable, at least in its main outlines.
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Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.
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Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.
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Belief in a Divine mission is one of the many forms of certainty that have afflicted the human race.
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America... where law and custom alike are based upon the dreams of spinsters...
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The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
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... the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.
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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.
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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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In human relations one should penetrate to the core of loneliness in each person and speak to that.
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Some people would rather die than think.
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To create a healthy philosophy you should renounce metaphysics but be a good mathematician.
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