25 Bertrand Russell Quotes About Society That Will Make You Think

These Bertrand Russell quotes will show you why he is often considered the founder of analytic philosophy.

In philosophy, Bertrand Russell’s name is well known, even if his thoughts were initially controversial.

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What are the benefits of reading these Bertrand Russell quotes?

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, social critic, essayist, and logician.

Over the course of his career, Russell heavily influenced great thinkers in the study of logic, as well as those who studied ethics, politics, and religion.

Russell was considered a controversial figure in philosophy.

He was an evangelical atheist, openly campaigned against the Vietnam War, and was against using nuclear weapons.

Because of his controversial opinions and actions, Russell was dismissed from both Trinity College in Cambridge and City College in New York.

However, he was later awarded an Order of Merit in 1949 as well as a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Below is a list of Bertrand Russell quotes to get your brain cogs turning!

These Bertrand Russell quotes will:

• give you a new perspective on people and the community
• help you better understand love, hate, and relationships
• offer some insights into education and knowledge

Don’t forget to check out these Edmund Burke quotes on liberty, power, and virtue.

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Bertrand Russell quotes that comment on people and society

1. “Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent.” — Bertrand Russell

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2. “A man without a bias cannot write interesting history.” — Bertrand Russell

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3. “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” — Bertrand Russell

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4. “We love those who hate our enemies, and if we had no enemies there would be very few people whom we should love.” — Bertrand Russell

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5. “The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.” — Bertrand Russell

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6. “Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.” — Bertrand Russel

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7. “Acquisitiveness — the wish to possess as much as possible of goods, or the title to goods — is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries.” — Bertrand Russell

8. “Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of skeptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them.” — Bertrand Russell

9. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” — Bertrand Russell

10. “Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.” — Bertrand Russell

11. “I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: “The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.” In these words, he epitomized the history of the human race.” — Bertrand Russell

12. “Politics is concerned with herds rather than with individuals.” — Bertrand Russell

13. “Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” — Bertrand Russell

14. “The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.” — Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell quotes about love, hate, and relationships

15. “Love can flourish only as long as it is free and spontaneous; it tends to be killed by the thought of duty. To say that it is your duty to love so—and—so is the surest way to cause you to hate him of her.” — Bertrand Russell

16. “The total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.” — Bertrand Russell

17. “To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.” — Bertrand Russell

18. “It is normal to hate what we fear, and it happens frequently, though not always, that we fear what we hate.” — Bertrand Russell

19. “A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return.” — Bertrand Russell

20. “It’s easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you.” — Bertrand Russell

21. “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” — Bertrand Russell

22. “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” — Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell quotes about education and knowledge

23. “Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.” — Bertrand Russell

24. “A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand.” — Bertrand Russell

25. “Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.” — Bertrand Russell

Which of these Bertrand Russell quotes was your favorite?

Like many free-thinkers, Bertrand Russell was considered controversial in his time.

He was an outspoken man whose beliefs often went against what the public accepted as truth.

However, his ability to think outside of the societal norm led him to be one of the founding figures in modern analytical philosophy.

Russell’s contribution to the theoretics of mathematics, ethics, epistemology, and logic solidified Russell as one of the principal philosophers of the 20th century.

Russell openly campaigned for his beliefs.

His writings on social commentary, politics, war, and other moral subjects won him as much admiration as they did distaste from the public around the world.

Russell held steadfast to his philosophy, despite what the people had to say about him.

Hopefully, these Bertrand Russell quotes will inspire you live life according to your personal beliefs, despite what those around you may think.

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