Inspirational Quotes
Words to motivate, inspire, and guide you.
Bertrand Russell Quotes
FearHumanityMoralitySanityTrust 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.
ExcellenceJoyMathematicsPoetry The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.
BeautyInquiryPerspective No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?
Critical ThinkingDemocracyDiscernment To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
BeliefCredulityHuman NatureReason Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
PhilosophyPracticalityRelevanceTheory 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.
BalanceContrastDutyEnduranceRelationship Dynamics A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.
DetachmentFreedom 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.
Critical ThinkingGender StereotypesHistorical MisconceptionsHumorPhilosophy Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.
EvolutionPerspectiveProgress A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.
CourageCrueltyFearJustice The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe.
HatredIdealismLove of Power Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
DesireGoodnessObjectivityTruth 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.
Perception A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.
Critical ThinkingFoundations Of KnowledgeLogicPhilosophyRationality Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.
BehaviorFearGroup DynamicsHerd MentalitySociety Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
CourageInnovationNonconformityProgress Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
AccountabilityDemocracyLeadership Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.
InteractionObservationPerceptionSelf The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.
Human IngenuityInfluencePivotal EraProgressScience Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.