Bertrand Russell Quotes - Page 5

If [a man] spent his money, say, in giving parties for his friends, they (we may hope) would get pleasure, and so would all those upon whom he spent money, such as the butcher, the baker, and the bootlegger. But if he spends it (let us say) upon laying down rails for surface cars in some place where surface cars turn out not to be wanted, he has diverted a mass of labor into channels where it gives pleasure to no one. Nevertheless, when he becomes poor through failure of his investment he will be regarded as a victim of undeserved misfortune, whereas the gay spendthrift, who has spent his money philanthropically, will be despised as a fool and a frivolous person.

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.

It is a curious and painful fact that almost all the completely futile treatments that have been believed in during the long history of medical folly have been such as caused acute suffering to the patient. When anesthetics were discovered, pious people considered them an attempt to evade the will of God. It was pointed out, however, that when God extracted Adam's rib He put him into a deep sleep. This proved that anesthetics are all right for men; women, however, ought to suffer, because of the curse of Eve.

Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness it is a sign of emotional failure.

Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know, we become insensitive to many things of great importance.

The special skill of the politician consists in knowing what passions can be most easily aroused, and how to prevent them, when aroused, from being harmful to himself and his associates...Moreover, since politicians are divided into rival groups, they aim at similarly dividing the nation, unless they have the good fortune to unite it in war against some other nation.

I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man's place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last--I have found.With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.

From the standpoint of the upper classes, the system had many merits. They felt that what was paid out of the poor rate was charity, and therefore a proof of their benevolence; at the same time, wages were kept at starvation level by a method which just prevented discontent from developing into revolution...It was plainly the certainty, derived from the old Poor Law, that actual death would be averted by the parish authorities, which induced the rural poor of England to endure their misery patiently...it taught them respect for their 'betters'.While leaving all the wealth that they produced, beyond the absolute minimum required for subsistence, in the hands of the landowners and farmers. It was at this period that landowners built the sham Gothic ruins called 'follies', where they indulged in romantic sensibility about the past while they filled the present with misery and degradation.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

Change is scientific, ‘progress’ is ethical. Change is indubitable whereas progress is a matter of controversy.

Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.

In all affairs love religion politics or business it's a healthy idea now and then to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted.

Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

The habit of looking into the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. There can be no value in the whole unless there is value in the parts.

I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.

If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be enough for everybody and no unemployment -- assuming a certain very moderate amount of sensible organization. This idea shocks the well-to-do, because they are convinced that the poor would not know how to use so much leisure. In America men often work long hours even when they are well off; such men, naturally, are indignant at the idea of leisure for wage-earners, except as the grim punishment of unemployment; in fact, they dislike leisure even for their sons.

Advocates of capitalism like to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.

Это не вина психологии романтиков, это их стандарт ценностей. Они восхищаются сильными страстями, безразлично какого рода и каковы бы ни были их социальные последствия. Романтическая любовь, особенно когда она несчастлива, достаточно сильна, чтобы заслужить их одобрение, но большинство сильнейших страстей разрушительно: ненависть, негодование и ревность, раскаяние и отчаяние, поруганная гордость и ярость несправедливо притесняемого, воинственный пыл и презрение к рабам и трусам. Следовательно, тип человека, поддерживаемый романтизмом, особенно в его байроновском варианте, – это склонный к насилию и антисоциальный, анархический бунтарь или побеждающий деспот.Причины того, что это мировоззрение обладает притягательной силой, лежат очень глубоко в природе человека и условиях его существования. Из чувства самосохранения человек стал стадным существом, но инстинктивно он остается в очень большой степени одиночкой; следовательно, необходимы религия и мораль, чтобы подкрепить этот инстинкт. Но привычка воздерживаться от удовольствий в настоящем ради преимуществ в будущем утомительна, и когда возбуждаются страсти, трудно держать себя в благоразумных рамках общественного поведения. Те, кто в такие моменты отбрасывает их, приобретают новую энергию и ощущение силы от прекращения внутреннего конфликта, и, хотя в конце концов они могут попасть в беду, они наслаждаются чувством божественной экзальтации, которое, хотя известно великим мистикам, никогда не может быть испытано теми, чье поведение не выходит за рамки прозаической добродетели. Индивидуалистическая сторона их природы утверждает себя, но, если сохраняется интеллект, это утверждение должно облекать себя в миф. Мистик пребывает наедине с Богом и, созерцая бесконечное, чувствует себя свободным от обязанностей по отношению к своему ближнему.

There is a widespread philosophical tendency towards the view which tells us that Man is the measure of all things, that truth is man-made, that space and time and the world of universals are properties of the mind, and that, if there be anything not created by the mind, it is unknowable and of no account for us. This view, if our previous discussions were correct, is untrue; but in addition to being untrue, it has the effect of robbing philosophic contemplation of all that gives it value, since it fetters contemplation to Self. What it calls knowledge is not a union with the not-Self, but a set of prejudices, habits, and desires, making an impenetrable veil between us and the world beyond. The man who finds pleasure in such a theory of knowledge is like a man who never leaves the domestic circle for fear his word might not be law.

...It is necessary for the average citizen, if he wishes to make a living, to avoid incurring the hostility of certain big men. And these big men have an outlook - religious, moral, and political - with which they expect their employees to agree, at least outwardly.

Real life is to most men a long second best a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.

Бунт индивидуалистических инстинктов против социальных уз является ключом к пониманию философии, политики и чувств – не только того, что обычно называется движением романтизма, но и его последователей вплоть до наших дней. Философия под влиянием немецкого идеализма стала солипсистской, и самоусовершенствование было провозглашено основополагающим принципом этики. Что касается чувства, то должен был существовать неприятный компромисс между стремлением к изоляции и необходимостью удовлетворения страсти и экономических потребностей. В рассказе Д. Г. Лоуренса «Человек, который любил острова» герой постепенно все в большей степени пренебрегает таким компромиссом и в конце концов умирает от голода и холода, но наслаждаясь полной изоляцией. Однако такой последовательности не достигли писатели, которые превозносят одиночество. Отшельник не пользуется удобствами цивилизованной жизни, и человек, который хочет писать книги или создавать произведения искусства, должен принять помощь других, для того чтобы поддержать свое существование в то время, когда он работает. Для того чтобы продолжать чувствовать себя в одиночестве, он должен быть в состоянии предотвратить тех, кто служит ему, от покушения на его Я, что лучше всего достигается, если они являются рабами. Страстная любовь, однако, более сложное дело. Поскольку страстные любовники рассматриваются как люди, которые восстали против социальных оков, ими восхищаются. Но в реальной жизни отношения любви сами быстро становятся социальными оковами и партнера по любви начинают ненавидеть, и все более неистово, если любовь достаточно сильна, чтобы сделать узы такими, что их трудно разорвать. Следовательно, любовь начинают представлять как борьбу, в которой каждый стремится уничтожить другого, проникая сквозь защитительные барьеры его или ее Я. Эта точка зрения становится обычной в произведениях Стриндберга и еще больше Д. Г. Лоуренса.

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard chiefly I think because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

Man needs for his happiness not only the enjoyment of this or that but hope and enterprise and change.

Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.