Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

—Bertrand Russell

certainty reasoning rationality absolutes

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 whiter my hair becomes, the more ready people are to believe what I say.

—Bertrand Russell

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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.

—Bertrand Russell

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

—Bertrand Russell

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

—Bertrand Russell

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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.

—Bertrand Russell

More quotations tagged with “rationality”

When I was a little kid, I was really scared of the dark. But then I came to understand, dark just means the absence of photons in the visible wavelength 400 to 700 nanometers. Then I thought, well it's really silly to be afraid of a lack of photons. Then I wasn't afraid of the dark anymore after that.

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You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers.

—John J. Plomp

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Gardening is not a rational act. What matters is the immersion of the hands in the earth, that ancient ceremony of which the Pope kissing the tarmac is merely a pallid vestigial remnant. In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

—Margaret Atwood

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I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly; feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Falling in love is not a rational process. It can’t be planned or avoided. It happens—for good or bad, it simply happens. I knew he’d eventually leave. I knew we couldn’t be together, but I fell anyway.

—Suzanne Selfors in Coffeehouse Angel

love reason rationality

History

19 Dec 2013 Added