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Bertrand Russell Quotes: Sources, Meanings & Themes

Browse quotations by Bertrand Russell with named works, context notes, meanings and recurring themes.

About the author

Context for this collection

1872–1970 · British philosopher, logician and public intellectual

Common themes

Curiosity, philosophical doubt, truth, education, individuality, self-respect, freedom, creativity and the discipline of examining inherited assumptions.

Sources

All 3 works represented in this collection

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays1917 · 3 quotationsPolitical Ideals1917 · 3 quotationsThe Problems of Philosophy1912 · 3 quotations
Leading recurring themes
Mind 4Identity 3Learning 3Self Trust 3Hope 2Life 2Love 2Courage 1Inspirational 1Motivational 1Positive 1Strength 1
Source identified1
The good which it concerns us to remember is the good which it lies in our power to create—the good in our own lives and in our attitude towards the world.
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“The good which it concerns us to remember is the good which it lies in our power to create—the good in our own lives and in our attitude towards the world.”

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays · 1917
Meaning & context

Russell shifts attention from uncontrollable cosmic outcomes toward forms of goodness that can still be created through one’s conduct and stance toward life.

Source details

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, within Russell’s philosophical discussion of human value and the world. The line is preserved as ethical argument rather than converted into a promise that circumstances are controllable.

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Source identified2
Disinterested curiosity, which is the source of almost all intellectual effort, finds with astonished delight that science can unveil secrets which might well have seemed for ever undiscoverable.
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“Disinterested curiosity, which is the source of almost all intellectual effort, finds with astonished delight that science can unveil secrets which might well have seemed for ever undiscoverable.”

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays · 1917
Meaning & context

Curiosity can sustain difficult intellectual work because discovery itself becomes rewarding even when inquiry is not driven by immediate practical gain.

Source details

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, essay “The Place of Science in a Liberal Education.” Project Gutenberg #25447. The surrounding passage describes the positive value of a scientific spirit.

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Source identified3
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.
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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.”

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays · 1917
Meaning & context

Inquiry becomes more reliable when the wish to know is allowed to challenge hopes, fears and preferences that would otherwise predetermine the answer.

Source details

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, “The Place of Science in a Liberal Education.” Russell continues by describing an attempt to see material frankly, without preconception or wishful bias.

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Source identified4
We do not want all men to be alike.
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“We do not want all men to be alike.”

Political Ideals · 1917
Meaning & context

Human development should not be forced into one standardized mold because individuality and creative difference are themselves goods worth protecting.

Source details

Political Ideals, early discussion of individual development. Russell immediately criticizes the bad teacher who imposes one opinion and produces pupils giving the same answer to doubtful questions.

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Source identified5
A certain kind of self-respect or native pride is necessary to a good life.
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“A certain kind of self-respect or native pride is necessary to a good life.”

Political Ideals · 1917
Meaning & context

Russell treats a durable sense of inward worth as necessary for living without surrendering completely to defeat, pressure or external judgment.

Source details

Political Ideals, discussion of what social institutions should make possible for individuals. Russell immediately connects self-respect with courage, hope and living by the best within oneself despite obstacles.

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Source identified6
The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.
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“The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.”

Political Ideals · 1917
Meaning & context

Russell ranks creative activity above possession, presenting a good life as one organized around making, developing and contributing rather than accumulating.

Source details

Political Ideals, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #4776. Russell distinguishes possessive impulses from creative or constructive impulses and then says that the best life gives the largest role to the latter. This remains a 1917 political-philosophy ideal about individual life and institutions, not a current empirical measure of wellbeing or creativity.

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Source identified7
The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty.
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“The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty.”

The Problems of Philosophy · 1912
Meaning & context

Russell argues that uncertainty can be intellectually valuable because it loosens inherited assumptions and makes room for examined alternatives.

Source details

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” printed page 242 / scan leaf 246 in the 1912 Williams & Norgate edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. “The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty” begins Russell’s concluding account of how philosophical doubt can loosen unexamined certainty; this is philosophical argument, not an empirical psychological finding.

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Source identified8
These questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation.
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“These questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation.”

The Problems of Philosophy · 1912
Meaning & context

Questions matter even without final answers because sustained inquiry expands intellectual possibility and weakens premature certainty about what can be true.

Source details

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” closing paragraph, beginning on printed page 249 / scan leaf 253 in the fully validated 1912 Williams & Norgate Wikisource scan, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. “These questions enlarge our conception of what is possible...” explains why Russell values philosophical questions even when definite answers cannot usually be established; it remains an epistemological and educational-philosophical claim rather than a measured outcome guarantee.

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Source identified9
The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.
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“The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.”

The Problems of Philosophy · 1912
Meaning & context

Unexamined common sense can become a prison when inherited assumptions are accepted automatically instead of being tested by deliberate reasoning.

Source details

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” beginning on printed page 242 / scan leaf 246 and continuing onto printed page 243 / scan leaf 247 in the fully validated 1912 Williams & Norgate Wikisource scan, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. The “no tincture of philosophy” sentence criticizes inherited common-sense, national and habitual prejudices that have not been examined by deliberate reason; it remains Russell’s philosophical argument rather than a diagnosis of people who do not study philosophy.

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