Top 15 Bertrand Russell Quotes

British philosopher and logician (1872–1970)

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Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (May 18, 1872 – February 2, 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. In 1950, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bio from: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Portrait adapted from: Wikimedia Commons, Bassano Ltd (Public domain / CC0)

Birth Name: Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Alternative Names: Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell • Bertrand Russell, Earl Russell • Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell • Russell

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Engraved portrait of Bertrand Russell, facing left

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

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

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

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

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3-parts dead.

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

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

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 made them.

I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.