Bertrand Russell Quotes

Whitehead reacted strongly against the idea of God as a cosmic tyrant, one who brings about everything.

It connects with the theologians' point that you can say what God is not, but not (easily) what He is.

Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?

A changeable God would be no God.

But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.

The redemptive power of divine grace no longer seemed credible, nor very respectable in the arbitrary performance that was claimed for it.

If we take away any of the attributes of God, we do not weaken God but we weaken our concept of God.

But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and it is at such times, when they begin to think, that they begin to doubt the truth of the Christian religion; and well they may, for it is too fanciful and too full of conjecture, inconsistency, improbability and irrationality, to afford consolation to the thoughtful man. His reason revolts against his creed. He sees that none of its articles are proved, or can be proved.

Gods? Don't let that impress you. Anyone can be a god if they have enough worshippers. You don't even have to have powers anymore. In my time I've seen theatre gods, gladiator gods, even storyteller gods - you people see gods everywhere. Gives you an excuse for not thinking for yourselves. God is just a word. Like Fury. like demon, Just words people use for things they don't understand. Reverse it and you get dog. It's just as appropriate.

When you get a whole country - as did ours - thinking that Washington is a sort of heaven and behind its clouds dwell omniscience and omnipotence, you are educating that country into a dependent state of mind which augers ill for the future.

If we believe in a God at all, we must surely ascribe to him perfection of wisdom and perfection of goodness; we are then forced to conceive of Him - however strange it may sound to those who believe, not only without seeing but also without thinking - as without will, because He must always necessarily pursue the course which is wisest and best.

How anyone can remain a Catholic - I mean who has ever been aroused to think, and is not biased by the partialities of childish years - after seeing Catholicism here in Italy I cannot conceive.

In a way, I think religion is to be admired for asking the right questions. I just think it's got the wrong answers.

We need to provide an education which teaches crit­ical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.

We must care to think about the unthinkable things, because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.

If you think it's simple, then you have misunderstood the problem.

Good writing is the hardest form of thinking.

I don't think it was me getting rid of any sort of imageI do specific things in my career that are tailored for a specific audience. Obviously I have a younger generation that looks at me - and I really appreciate that. And I just did an animated movie, so I want to respect that and still do things that will earn me that respect. But I also want to do things that challenge me and put me out of my element.

A book is valuable not only for what it says but for what it makes you think, or causes you to remember. No matter what you wish to do or become there are books to teach you, help you, guide you.

Simply getting a country's population online is not going to trigger a revolution in critical thinking.

I don't think you can say that feminism has made women critical of marriage because women have been critical of marriage for centuries.

The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment, exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worth while. The commonest mistake made about freedom is, I think, to identify it with freedom of movement, or, with the external or physical side of activity.

All coaches are thinking men, or else they wouldn't survive.

Mathematics ... is indispensable as an intellectual technique. In many subjects, to think at all is to think like a mathematician.