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.

True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels themthe desire to do rightis precisely the same.

—Bertrand Russell

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

—Bertrand Russell

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

—Bertrand Russell

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.

—Bertrand Russell

We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.

—Bertrand Russell

By all means marry: if you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

—Socrates

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts lead us back to God.

—Francis Bacon

Art for art's sake is a philosophy of the well-fed.

—Frank Lloyd Wright

It is easier to produce ten volumes of philosophical writings than to put one principle into practice.

—Leo Tolstoy