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Quote by Bertrand Russell

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Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, mathematician, and logician born on May 18, 1872, and died on February 2, 1970. He is known for his contributions to logic and mathematics, particularly in the fields of mathematical logic and philosophical analysis. His works spanned a wide range of subjects, including ethics, political philosophy, history, and literary criticism. more

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“In spite of Death, the mark and seal of the parental control, Man is yet free, during his brief years, to examine, to criticise, to know, and in imagination to create. To him alone, in the world with which he is acquainted, this freedom belongs; and in this lies his superiority to the resistless forces that control his outward life.”

KnowsMenWorldYearsLyingForceImaginationMarkSpiteSuperioritySealsParentalCriticise
Book:Mysticism and Logic
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“Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.”

MindPhilosophyUniverseImaginationAnswersKnownGreatnessHighestCapableIntellectualUnionsSakeBeing TrueConceptionContemplatingDefiniteDiminishAssuranceSpeculationDogmatic
Book:The Problems of Philosophy
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“I should like to believe my people's religion, which was just what I could wish, but alas, it is impossible. I have really no religion, for my God, being a spirit shown merely by reason to exist, his properties utterly unknown, is no help to my life. I have nor the parson's comfortable doctrine that every good action has its reward, and every sin is forgiven. My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.”

PeopleShouldBelieveReasonWholeHelpingActionSpiritWishSinImpossibleDutyComfortablePropertyRewardsVery GoodDoctrineForgivenAlasHereafterGood Actions
Book:Bertrand Russell on God and Religion
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“There is a possibility in human minds of something mysterious as the night-wind, deep as the sea, calm as the stars, and strong as Death, a mystic contemplation, the “intellectual love of God.” Those who have known it cannot believe in wars any longer, or in any kind of hot struggle. If I could give to others what has come to me in this way, I could make them too feel the futility of fighting. But I do not know how to communicate it: when I speak, they stare, applaud, or smile, but do not understand.”

IfsKnowsWayGivingFeelsMindBelieveHumansKindWarNightFightingSpeakStrongStarsKnownKnow HowStruggleSeaPossibilityWindIntellectualHotCalmCommunicateMysteriousGod LoveStaringContemplationIf I CouldHuman MindMysticFutility
Book:The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell
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“The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interests of the desire to know-it involves suppression of hopes and fears, loves and hates, and the whole subjective emotional life, until we become subdued to the material, able to see it frankly, without preconceptions, without bias, without any wish except to see it as it is, and without any belief that what it is must be determined by some relation, positive or negative, to what we should like it to be, or to what we can easily imagine it to be.”

KnowsShouldMindWholeAbleDesireHateBeliefWishInterestAttitudeImagineEmotionalMaterialsNegativeRelationDeterminedBiasSubjectiveSweepingLove And HateSuppressionPreconceptionsFear Of LoveHopes And FearsEmotional Life
Book:Mysticism and Logic
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“I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.”

WorldGivingBelieveMomentsCareBeautifulHateDiesIndividualLeftI BelieveSocialGrowsImaginationVisionHorrorGreedInsightEnvyNoblePursuitGentleMundane
Book:Bertrand Russell's Best
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