Bertrand Russell Quotes

... mathematics is absolutely necessary and useful to the other sciences.

I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it.

Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.

A theory has only the alternative of being right or wrong. A model has a third possibility: it may be right, but irrelevant.

The world forgets about people who are not useful.

Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.

If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in society, then Mythology has no claim to the appellation.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.

Facts are stupid until brought into connection with some general law.

The meaning or value of a thing consists of what it affords.

Knowledge is that which benefits, not that which is memorized

Advise not on what is pleasant, but what is most useful.

Mathematics is a logical method. . . . Mathematical propositions express no thoughts. In life it is never a mathematical proposition which we need, but we use mathematical propositions only in order to infer from propositions which do not belong to mathematics to others which equally do not belong to mathematics.

I smil'd to my self at the sight of this money, O drug! said I aloud, what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me, no not the taking off of the ground, one of those knives is worth all this heap, I have no manner of use for thee, e'en remain where thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worth saving. However, upon second thoughts, I took it away.

What preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way?

Reason is a bee, and exists only on what it makes; his usefulness takes the place of beauty.

The only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.

To use is necessary. And if you can't be used, then you're useless.

Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether.

Nobody cares if you're an idiot, as long as you're a useful one.

No book so bad but some part may be of use.

Every kind of science, if it has only reached a certain degree of maturity, automatically becomes a part of mathematics.

Anyone I may have used should feel happy that they even had a use. It's better than being useless.