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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.

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
Would
Philosopher
Pirate
Main
Outlines
Philosophy
Genuinely
Calculable
Least
Philosophers
Constitutionally
Happy
Invent
Burglars
Future
Dislike
Pirates
Part
Unexpected
Timid
Make
Systems
Accordingly

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If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.
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Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.
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Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.
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Humanistic ethics is based on the principle that only humans themselves can determine the criterion for virtue and not an authority transcending us.
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The whiter my hair becomes, the more ready people are to believe what I say.
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An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.
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If the West can claim superiority in anything, it is . . . in science and scientific technique.
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Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.
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Zeno was concerned with three problems... These are the problem of the infinitesimal, the infinite, and continuity.
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Descartes, the father of modern philosophy ... would never-so he assures us-have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain.
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What was exciting in the Victorian Age, would leave a man of franker epoch quite unmoved. The more prudes restrict the permissible degree of sexual appeal, the less is required to make such an appeal effective.
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Education, which was at first made universal in order that all might be able to read and write, has been found capable of serving quite other purposes. By instilling nonsense it unifies populations and generates collective enthusiasm.
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Only six need be attempted.
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Change is one thing, progress is another.
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Curious learning not only makes unpleasant things less unpleasant but also makes pleasant things more pleasant.
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Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
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The experience of overcoming fear is extraordinarily delightful.
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