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The Axiom of Choice is necessary to select a set from an infinite number of socks, but not an infinite number of shoes.

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
Necessary
Number
Axiom
Axioms
Choice
Socks
Numbers
Sock
Choices
Select
Shoes
Infinite

More quotes by Bertrand Russell

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A priori Logical propositions are such as can be known a priori without study of the actual world.
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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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It appeared to me that the dignity of which human existence is capable is not attainable by devotion to the mechanism of life , and that unless contemplation of eternal things is preserved, mankind will become no better than well-fed pigs.
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The taboo against nakedness is an obstacle to a decent attitude on the subject of sex.
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People who are vigorous and brutal often find war enjoyable.
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When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.
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Our beliefs are, however, often contrary to fact.
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All definite knowledge - so I should contend - belongs to science all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack by both sides this No Man's Land is philosophy.
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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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Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else.
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Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
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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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The luxury to disparage freedom is the privilege of those who already possess it.
Bertrand Russell
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[Regarding] the convention that clergymen are more virtuous than other men. Any average selection of mankind, set apart and told that it excels the rest in virtue, must tend to sink below the average.
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Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Bertrand Russell
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Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.
Bertrand Russell
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What will be the good of the conquest of leisure and health, if no one remembers how to use them?
Bertrand Russell
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A man of Seville is shaved by the Barber of Seville if and only if the man does not shave himself. Does the barber shave himself?
Bertrand Russell
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Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?
Bertrand Russell
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Any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued.
Bertrand Russell