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The fundamental principle in the analysis of propositions containing descriptions is this: Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.

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
Every
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More quotes by Bertrand Russell

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Americans need rest, but do not know it.
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Answering questions is a major part of sex education. Two rules cover the ground. First, always give a truthful answer to a question secondly, regard sex knowledge as exactly like any other knowledge.
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It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.
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I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.
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The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love.
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The most essential characteristic of scientific technique is that it proceeds from experiment, not from tradition.
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Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.
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Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them.
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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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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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Suppose atomic bombs had reduced the population of the world to one brother and sister should they let the human race die out?
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One is always a little afraid of love, but above all, one is afraid of pain or causing pain.
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That Plato's Republic should have been admired, on its political side, by decent people, is perhaps the most astonishing example of literary snobbery in all history.
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I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step toward any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another.
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The difficulty is old, but none the less real. An omnipotent being who created a world containing evil not due to sin must Himself be at least partially evil.
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Life is just one cup of coffee after another, and don't look for anything else.
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Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don't know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.
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Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.
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no one ever gossips about the virtues of others
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The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.
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