55+ Inspirational Bertrand Russell Quotes About Religion, Love, and Happiness!

Bertrand Russell Quotes on Religion

Here are the other Bertrand Russel quotes about religion that will inspire you!

• "I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine."Bertrand Russell

• "Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate."Bertrand Russell

• "Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race."Bertrand Russell

• "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

• "You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world."Bertrand Russell

• "I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."Bertrand Russell

• "Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed."Bertrand Russell

• "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."Bertrand Russell

• "Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines."Bertrand Russell

• "One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it."Bertrand Russell

• "I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out."Bertrand Russell

• "I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue."Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell Quotes on Love

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Find out one of the best Bertrand Russel quotes about love!

• "Although both love and knowledge are necessary, love is in a sense more fundamental, since it will lead intelligent people to seek knowledge, in order to find out how to benefit those whom they love. But if people are not intelligent, they will be content to believe what they have been told, and may do harm in spite of the most genuine benevolence."

• "Love is a word which covers a variety of feelings; I have used it purposely, as I wish to include them all. Love as an emotion — which is what I am speaking about, for love “on principle” does not seem to me genuine — moves between two poles: on one side, pure delight in contemplation; on the other, pure benevolence. Where inanimate objects are concerned, delight alone enters in; we cannot feel benevolence towards a landscape or a sonata. This type of enjoyment is presumably the source of art. It is stronger, as a rule, in very young children than in adults, who are apt to view objects in a utilitarian spirit. It plays a large part in our feelings towards human beings, some of whom have charm and some the reverse, when considered simply as objects of aesthetic contemplation."

• "Love at its fullest is an indissoluble combination of the two elements, delight and well-wishing. The pleasure of a parent in a beautiful and successful child combines both elements; so does sex-love at its best. But in sex-love benevolence will only exist where there is secure possession, since otherwise jealousy will destroy it, while perhaps actually increasing the delight in contemplation. Delight without well-wishing may be cruel; well-wishing without delight easily tends to become cold and a little superior. A person who wishes to be loved wishes to be the object of a love containing both elements."

• "All moral rules must be tested by examining whether they tend to realize ends that we desire. I say ends that we desire, not ends that we ought to desire. What we “ought” to desire is merely what someone else wishes us to desire. Usually it is what the authorities wish us to desire — parents, school-masters, policemen, and judges. If you say to me “you ought to do so-and-so,” the motive power of your remark lies in my desire for your approval — together, possibly, with rewards or punishments attached to your approval or disapproval. Since all behavior springs from desire, it is clear that ethical notions can have no importance except as they influence desire. They do this through the desire for approval and the fear of disapproval. These are powerful social forces, and we shall naturally endeavor to win them to our side if we wish to realize any social purpose.

• "There is no conceivable way of making people do things they do not wish to do. What is possible is to alter their desires by a system of rewards and penalties, among which social approval and disapproval are not the least potent. The question for the legislative moralist is, therefore: How shall this system of rewards and punishments be arranged so as to secure the maximum of what is desired by the legislative authority? … Outside human desires there is no moral standard."

• "Current morality is a curious blend of utilitarianism and superstition, but the superstitious part has the stronger hold, as is natural, since superstition is the origin of moral rules. Originally, certain acts were thought displeasing to the gods, and were forbidden by law because the divine wrath was apt to descend upon the community, not merely upon the guilty individuals. Hence arose the conception of sin, as that which is displeasing to God. No reason can be assigned as to why certain acts should be thus displeasing."

• "It is evident that a man with a scientific outlook on life cannot let himself be intimidated by texts of Scripture or by the teaching of the Church. He will not be content to say “such-and-such an act is sinful, and that ends the matter.” He will inquire whether it does any harm or whether, on the contrary, the belief that it is sinful does harm. And he will find that, especially in what concerns sex, our current morality contains a very great deal of which the origin is purely superstitious. He will find also that this superstition, like that of the Aztecs, involves needless cruelty, and would be swept away if people were actuated by kindly feelings towards their neighbors. But the defenders of traditional morality are seldom people with warm hearts… One is tempted to think that they value morals as affording a legitimate outlet for their desire to inflict pain; the sinner is fair game, and therefore away with tolerance!"

• "It should be recognized that, in the absence of children, sexual relations are a purely private matter, which does not concern either the State or the neighbors. Certain forms of sex which do not lead to children are at present punished by the criminal law: this is purely superstitious, since the matter is one which affects no one except the parties directly concerned."

• "In all stages of education the influence of superstition is disastrous. A certain percentage of children have the habit of thinking; one of the aims of education is to cure them of this habit. Inconvenient questions are met with ‘hush, hush’, or with punishment."

• "At puberty, the elements of an unsuperstitious sexual morality ought to be taught. Boys and girls should be taught that nothing can justify sexual intercourse unless there is mutual inclination. This is contrary to the teaching of the Church, which holds that, provided the parties are married and the man desires another child, sexual intercourse is justified however great may be the reluctance of the wife. Boys and girls should be taught respect for each other’s liberty; they should be made to feel that nothing gives one human being rights over another, and that jealousy and possessiveness kill love. They should be taught that to bring another human being into the world is a very serious matter, only to be undertaken when the child will have a reasonable prospect of health, good surroundings, and parental care. But they should also be taught methods of birth control, so as to insure that children shall only come when they are wanted."

Quotes by Bertrand Russell

More about Bertrand Russel quotes!

• "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible."Bertrand Russell

• "My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilisation. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others."Bertrand Russell

• "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless."Bertrand Russell

• "I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds."Bertrand Russell

• "When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue, because, as men of science, they know that neither is infallible. But when two theologians differ, since there is no criteria to which either can appeal, there is nothing for it but mutual hatred and an open or covert appeal to force."Bertrand Russell

• "Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him."Bertrand Russell

• "Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so."Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell Quotes Happiness

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Scroll down to the following list of Bertrand Russel quotes about happiness below and choose your favorite one!

• "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."Bertrand Russell

• "To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness."Bertrand Russell

• "Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."Bertrand Russell

• "If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years."Bertrand Russell

• "The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible."Bertrand Russell

• "A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live."Bertrand Russell

• "Any pleasure that does no harm to other people is to be valued."Bertrand Russell

• "Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's."Bertrand Russell

• "Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change."Bertrand Russell

• "The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live."Bertrand Russell

• "The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile."Bertrand Russell

• "To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness."Bertrand Russell

• "Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be called a friendly interest in persons and things."Bertrand Russell

• "Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy."Bertrand Russell

• "Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed."Bertrand Russell

• "To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future."Bertrand Russell

• "Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly."Bertrand Russell

• "Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it."Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell Quotes Mathematics

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The last and the only one in this part is Bertrand Russel's quotes about mathematics.

• “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.”― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

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