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Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes.

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
Force
Legislative
Wish
Metaphysics
Give
Fundamentally
Giving
Wishes
Ethical
Attempt
However
Philosophy
Disguised

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Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organized insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.
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We have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age.
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There are two motives for reading a book one, that you enjoy it the other, that you can boast about it.
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A European who goes to New York and Chicago sees the future... when he goes to Asia he sees the past.
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What has human happiness to do with morals? The object of morals is not to make people happy.
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I consider the official Catholic attitude on divorce, birth control, and censorship exceedingly dangerous to mankind.
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Americans need rest, but do not know it.
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Through the greatness of the universe, which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.
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The three main extra-rational activities in modern life are religion, war, and love. all these are extra-rational, but love is not anti-rational, that is to say, a reasonable man may reasonably rejoice in its existence
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Our beliefs are, however, often contrary to fact.
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The man who only loves beautiful things is dreaming, whereas the man who knows absolute beauty is wide awake.
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But I simply can't stand a view limited to this earth, I feel life is so small unless it has windows into other worlds...I like mathematics largely because it is not human.
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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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The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
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Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the lure of popularity, to pursue important work in spite of general indifference or hostility, and arrive at opinions which are opposed to prevalent errors.
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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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Awareness of universals is called conceiving, and a universal of which we are aware is called a concept.
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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 science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.
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Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
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