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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.

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
Hard
Satisfying
Think
Impulse
Thinking
Punishment
Effect
Prison
Effects
Sadistic
Belief
Chiefly
Dies
Impulses

More quotes by Bertrand Russell

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There is an element of the busybody in our conception of virtue: unless a man makes himself a nuisance to a great many people, we do not think he can be an exceptionally good man.
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The most essential characteristic of scientific technique is that it proceeds from experiment, not from tradition.
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All the conditions of happiness are realized in the life of the man of science.
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Whether science-and indeed civilization in general-can long survive depends upon psychology, that is to say, it depends upon what human beings desire.
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Mankind is divided into two classes: those who, being artificial, praise nature, and those who, being natural, praise art.
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The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.
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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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Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man.
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The true spirit of delight...is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.
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It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion.
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Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.
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Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favour of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life.
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To discover a system for the avoidance of war is a vital need of our civilisation.
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One of the most painful circumstances of recent advances in science is that each one makes us know less than we thought we did
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Real life is, to most men, a long second best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.
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It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.
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Hitler is an outcome of Rousseau.
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One must expect a war between U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. which will begin with the total destruction of London. I think the war will last 30 years, and leave a world without civilised people, from which everything will have to build afresh - a process taking (say) 500 years.
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We know too much and feel too little.
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Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is based on the idea of approximation. If a man tells you he knows a thing exactly, then you can be safe in inferring that you are speaking to an inexact man.
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