Bertrand Russell Quotes

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

But the need for conflict to expose prejudice and unclear reasoning, which is deeply embedded in my philosophy of science, has its origin in these debates.

Arguments that prove too much prove nothing.

Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

Proof by analogy is fraud.

To be clever in argument is not rationality but rationalization.

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

It is true the orator may make a myriad replica of his own passion out of those who listen to him. But that does not prove he is right or they are not fools.

Men will die upon dogma but will not fall victim to a conclusion.

I do not think it possible for anyone to get by in life without prejudice. However, the attempt to do so leads many people to suppose that, in order to decide any moral question, they have to find an indubitable first principle from which they can deduce an answer.

I had heard of the Cyclopes, and then of the tyrants, both savage inhabitants; but of the coming of this third race of monsters, armed with two-edged arguments, and fiercer than the burning shores of Taormina itself, I was unaware.

To admit one's own presuppositions and to point out the presuppositions of others is therefore to maintain that all reasoning is, in the nature of the case, circular reasoning. The starting-point, the method, and the conclusion are always involved in one another.

Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy.

Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

Arguments do not erase prejudice any more than arguments erase scars, whether psychological or physical.

That's the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you're never wrong.

Somehow even a popular fallacy has an aspect of truth when it suits one's own case.

Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence.

Insight makes argument ridiculous.

False conclusions which have been reasoned out are infinitely worse than blind impulse.

When orators and auditors have the same prejudices, those prejudices run a great risk of being made to stand for incontestable truths.

When a false argument puts on the appearance of a true one, then it is properly called a sophism or fallacy.

Wit is a thing capable of proof.