Bertrand Russell Quotes

Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.

Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy.

Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.

Logic works, metaphysics contemplates.

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct.

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

The very essence of rationalism is that it assumes that the reason is the highest faculty in man and the lord of all the rest.

The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith, and Faith is an Act of Reason.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.

Not only the entire ability to think rests on language... but language is also the crux of the misunderstanding of reason with itself.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

I like to regard myself as someone who's capable of critical thought, that is to say, who can evaluate claims.

Whichever theory we adopt to give a rational explanation of human existence, that theory must take into account and explain the mental nature we see at work in all modern communities.

It is, from another angle, an attack on requiring proof in philosophy. And it's also the case, I guess, that my temperament is to like interesting, new, bold ideas, and to try and generate them.

This idea was also brought out very clearly by Wallace, who emphasized that apparently reasonable activities of man might very well have developed without an actual application of reasoning.