Quote

For some reason which I have failed to understand, many people like the system [scientific totalitarianism] when it is Russian but disliked the very same system when it was German. I am compelled to think that this is due to the power of labels these people like whatever is labelled ‘Left’ without examining whether the label has any justification.

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
Think
Whatever
Compelled
Thinking
Whether
Russian
Like
Understand
German
Labelled
People
Left
Labels
Disliked
Power
Dues
Totalitarianism
Reason
Failed
Examining
Without
Scientific
Label
Many
System
Justification

More quotes by Bertrand Russell

Image
All human activity is prompted by desire.
Bertrand Russell
Image
If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Shakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].
Bertrand Russell
Image
Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.
Bertrand Russell
Image
One must care about a world one will not see.
Bertrand Russell
Image
The fundamental defect of Christian ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts 'sins' and others 'virtue' on grounds that have nothing to do with their social consequences.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.
Bertrand Russell
Image
One who believes, as I do, that the free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism, as much as to the Church of Rome.
Bertrand Russell
Image
We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent
Bertrand Russell
Image
A priori Logical propositions are such as can be known a priori without study of the actual world.
Bertrand Russell
Image
I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce.
Bertrand Russell
Image
If one lived for ever the joys of life would inevitably in the end lose their savour. As it is, they remain perennially fresh.
Bertrand Russell
Image
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Bertrand Russell
Image
It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Mankind is divided into two classes: those who, being artificial, praise nature, and those who, being natural, praise art.
Bertrand Russell
Image
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.
Bertrand Russell
Image
Philosophy bakes no bread
Bertrand Russell