Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.

—Bertrand Russell

death logic thinking reason

About Bertrand Russell

Portrait of Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was an English mathematician and philosopher. A founder of analytic philosophy, he was a leading philosopher of the 20th century who produced pioneering work in logic, set theory, and philosophy of language. Russell popularised philosophy to...

More quotations from Bertrand Russell

The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

—Bertrand Russell

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.

—Bertrand Russell

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

—Bertrand Russell

This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

—Bertrand Russell

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

—Bertrand Russell

More quotations tagged with “reason”

Do you have to have a reason for loving?

—Brigitte Bardot

People come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be.

—Joyce Carol Oates in and Flew Away

life people reason

Of all human activities, man's listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.

—Pope Paul VI

God will reason

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

—G. K. Chesterton

reason fallacies

Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.

—Blaise Pascal