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For over two thousand years it has been the custom among earnest moralists to decry happiness as something degraded and unworthy

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
Years
Earnest
Customs
Morality
Decry
Among
Moralists
Thousand
Degraded
Happiness
Moralist
Two
Custom
Something
Unworthy

More quotes by Bertrand Russell

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A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.
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If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.
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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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Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
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Curious learning not only makes unpleasant things less unpleasant but also makes pleasant things more pleasant.
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I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.
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The man who is unhappy will, as a rule, adopt an unhappy creed, while the man who is happy will adopt a happy creed each may attribute his happiness or unhappiness to his beliefs, while the real causation is the other way round.
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Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful therefore the worse they are performed, the better.
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If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.
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Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
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I do so hate to leave this world.
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When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.
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Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken.
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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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Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.
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The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
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Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
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A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime.
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Science, by itself cannot, supply us with an ethic.
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To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
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