Bertrand Russell Quotes on Mind
Russell's philosophy of mind develops across The Analysis of Mind (1921) and the late Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). The neutral monism Russell defended in the middle period holds that the constituents of mind and matter alike are events of a single underlying neutral kind, with mental and physical sequences distinguished by the laws (psychological or physical) that connect their members rather than by any underlying difference in substance. The earlier work in The Problems of Philosophy and the long engagement with the philosophy of mathematics supply the broader framework: knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, the analysis of belief and judgment, and the program of putting empirical knowledge of the physical world on a logically rigorous foundation through the construction of physical objects from the events given in immediate experience.
Quotes
-
“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”
A History of Western Philosophy, 1945 -
“Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.”
Aphorism (commonly attributed) -
“If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinise it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it.”
Ch. VI: International relations, p. 97 -
“I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think man is merely a kind of machine endowed, unhappily for himself, with consciousness.”
Greek Exercises (1888); at the age of fifteen, Russell used to write down his reflections in this book, for fear that his people should find out what he was thinking. -
“Greek Exercises (1888); at the age of fifteen, Russell used to write down his reflections in this book, for fear that his people should find out what he was thinking.”
I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think man is merely a kind of machine endowed, unhappily for himself, with consciousness. -
“Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance.”
1900s | Letter to Lucy Donnely, November 25, 1902 -
“Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.”
Our Knowledge of the External World(1914) | p. 167 -
“It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.”
Sceptical Essays(1928) | Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda -
“Life seems to me essentially passion, conflict, rage... It is only intellect that keeps me sane; perhaps this makes me overvalue intellect against feeling.”
1910s | Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1912, as quoted in Clark The life of Bertrand Russell (1976), p. 174 -
“I don't like the spirit of socialism – I think freedom is the basis of everything.”
1910s | Letter to Constance Malleson (Colette), September 29, 1916 -
“We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so.”
1920s | The ABC of Relativity (1925), p. 166 Variant: "Most people would rather die than think; many do." -
“I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me.”
1920s | Letter to C. P. Sanger, 23 December, 1929 -
“One who believes, as I do, that the free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism, as much as to the Church of Rome.”
The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism(1920) | Part I, Ch. 9: International Policy -
“We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.”
Sceptical Essays(1928) | Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda -
“I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attach too much importance to the negative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company.”
In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays(1935) | Ch. 12: Education and Discipline -
“I do not think it possible to get anywhere if we start from scepticism. We must start from a broad acceptance of whatever seems to be knowledge and is not rejected for some specific reason.”
My Philosophical Development(1959) | p. 200 -
“Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.”
1960s | Fact and Fiction (1961), Part II, Ch. 10: "University Education", p. 153 -
“What a monstrous thing that a University should teach journalism! I thought that was only done at Oxford. This respect for the filthy multitude is ruining civilisation.”
1900s | Letter to Lucy Martin Donnely, July 6, 1902 -
“When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.”
1910s | Theory of Knowledge (1913)