Bertrand Russell Quotes

A collection of quotes by Bertrand Russell.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social critic, and Nobel laureate. He is regarded as one of the most prominent and influential figures in 20th-century philosophy.

Russell was born into an aristocratic family in Wales, United Kingdom. He excelled academically from an early age and went on to study mathematics and philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. His groundbreaking work in logic and mathematics, particularly in the field of symbolic logic, earned him international recognition and set the stage for his later philosophical inquiries.

Throughout his career, Russell explored a wide range of topics, including metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of language. He played a significant role in the development of analytic philosophy, which emphasizes logical analysis and clarity of thought. His philosophical views evolved over time, but he remained committed to rationality, empiricism, and the pursuit of truth.

Apart from his philosophical work, Russell was also engaged in activism and social critique. He passionately advocated for pacifism, education reform, women's rights, and nuclear disarmament, often facing controversy and political persecution as a result.

In 1950, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his wide-ranging writings, which covered a variety of disciplines and demonstrated exceptional clarity of thought and a profound impact on contemporary culture. He continued his intellectual pursuits until his death in 1970, leaving a lasting legacy as one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.

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.