Bertrand Russell

“Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.”

“The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.”

“The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.”

“In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.”

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

“Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.”

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

“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”

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

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.”

“None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.”

“I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.”

“Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.”

“Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.”

“Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.”

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

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”

“Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.”

“Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.”

“The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.”

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

“The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.”

“The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.”

“The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men.”