As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

— Bertrand Russell

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked not be endured with patient resignation.

— Bertrand Russell

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked not endured with patient resignation.

— Bertrand Russell

A strange mystery it is that Nature, omnipotent but blind, in the revolutions of her secular hurrying through the abysses of space, has brought forth at last a child subject still to her power but gifted with sight, with knowledge of good and evil, with the capacity of judging all the works of his unthinking mother.

— Bertrand Russell

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

— Bertrand Russell

A word is used "correctly" when the average hearer will be affected by it in the way intended. This is a psychological, not a literary, definition of "correctness". The literary definition would substitute, for the average hearer, a person of high education living a long time ago; the purpose of this definition is to make it difficult to speak or write correctly.

— Bertrand Russell

Beggars do not envy millionaires though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

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

— Bertrand Russell

Boredom is essentially a thwarted desire for events, not necessarily pleasant ones, but just occurrences such as will enable the victim of ennui to know one day from another. The opposite of boredom, in a word, is not pleasure, but excitement.

— Bertrand Russell