Russell, Bertrand

"I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am convinced that they do good."

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not absurd."

"Science is a tool we use, not a master to which we submit."

"The only true nobility is the nobility of the soul."

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

"The philosopher should be a man willing to listen to every argument, but determined to yield to none without sufficient evidence."

"Obedience is an ugly word, and I do not think that it should be used to describe the behavior of free creatures."

"The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible."

"A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live."

"Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it."

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."

"To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy."

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."

"The moment you have a reason for believing something, you cease to believe it."

"Knowledge is power, but knowledge of the self is more powerful."

"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution."

"What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out."

"A habit is a form of behavior that is repeated so often it becomes automatic."

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

"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty."

"A man is a complex being; he makes peace and he makes war; he creates and he destroys."

"Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness."

"Thought is subversive to all authority, all tradition, all comfortable opinion."

"The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, and pays no attention to anything that is not part of their daily routine."

"The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, is found in mathematics as surely as poetry."

"I am not a Christian. I don't believe in God and in immortality."

"There is no royal road to a knowledge of geometry."

"The harm that the evil man does lives on after him."

"I believe in the God of Spinoza, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of all being, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

"It is important to walk around, but it is even more important to what you are walking around."