Bertrand Russell

"The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life."

"Do not be afraid of being extreme; being an extremist is not evil by definition, and certainly not when fighting evil."

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."

"The sudden change of power that occurs when a monarch dies is a matter deserving philosophical attention."

"The free man wants to believe in his own ability to choose and decide."

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."

"The purpose of open-mindedness is not that one's mind should be empty."

"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it."

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

"Science aims at constructing a map of reality; but the map is not the reality itself."

"In the world in which we live, the pursuit of knowledge is surrounded by many pitfalls."

"The feeling of absolute certainty is a very undesirable state of mind."

"One of the most powerful influences on the human mind is the idea of the future."

"We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought."

"The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held."

"To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom."

"Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface; second, telling other people to do so."

"The value of a statistical life is precisely zero."

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."

"Free thought means thinking about things as they are, not as authorities say they are."

"The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists."

"The capacity for friendship is a sign of health; a fundamental absence of friendship is a sign of psychosis."

"Change is scientific, progress is ethical; change is inevitable, while progress is a matter of controversy."

"There is something strangely winning about the good humor of those who have nothing at stake."

"Skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin."

"Most of the things we do in daily life serve no purpose whatever—or if they do, it is a secondary consideration."

"The fundamental cause of trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."

"Education should cultivate a love of truth and a desire to arrive at true beliefs."

"The human species has habitually assumed that it was the object of creation."