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The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities.

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
Possible
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Logical
Inferred
Wherever
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More quotes by Bertrand Russell

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I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
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Shakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].
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A good man will never suspect his friends of shady actions: this is part of his goodness. A good man will never be suspected by the public of using his goodness to screen villains: this is part of his utility
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
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Joy of life... depends upon a certain spontaneity in regard to sex. Where sex is repressed, only work remains, and a gospel of work for work's sake never produced any work worth doing.
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The satisfaction to be derived from success in a great constructive enterprise is one of the most massive that life has to offer.
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My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.
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I am aware that many divines are far more marvelous than I am, and that I cannot wholly appreciate merits so far transcending my own. Nevertheless, even after making allowances under this head, I cannot but think that Omnipotence operating through all eternity might have produced something better.
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Choose your parents wisely.
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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.
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The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are the two great engines of progress, without which human society would stand still or retrogress.
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A million million years gives us some time to prepare for the end . . . let us make the best of it.
Bertrand Russell
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The mind is a strange machine which can combine the materials offered to it in the most astonishing ways.
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Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
Bertrand Russell
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We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit. - Octavio Paz The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Bertrand Russell
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It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
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There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.
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When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think.
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... mathematical knowledge ... is, in fact, merely verbal knowledge. 3 means 2+1, and 4 means 3+1. Hence it follows (though the proof is long) that 4 means the same as 2+2. Thus mathematical knowledge ceases to be mysterious.
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We do not like to be robbed of an enemy we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.
Bertrand Russell