Bertrand Russell Quotes

I agree with the sentiment that it's probably more dangerous to believe some things that aren't so than to not believe something - you know, to believe in a lie.

In the long run, it is far more dangerous to adhere to illusion than to face what the actual fact is.

The worst derangement of the spirit is to believe things because we want them to be so, not because we have seen them for what they are.

Believing is such a comfort that it's hard to give up a belief just because it isn't true.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things.

You don't have to believe everything you think.

You decide whether you look at your reality or live pretending these feelings don't exist.

…It’s not that you don’t have the capacity to accept the truth. You don’t want to accept it, and you hide behind your own logic and intelligence while the truth marches by. Step out and join it, for goodness’’ sake! Shout it out in full step! I believe!

The truth. Men will blind themselves with hot irons, rather than face it.

We are more naive than those of the Middle Ages, and more frightened, for we can be made to believe almost anything.

It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.

Why do I want to believe what I believe?... Science, to put it somewhat vulgarly, is a technique to keep yourself from kidding yourself.

The minds of human beings are not always entirely at one with the world in which they live, some people have trouble adjusting to reality, basically they're just weak, confused spirits who use words, sometimes very skillfully, to justify their cowardice.

Isn't it sad how some people's grip on their lives is so precarious that they'll embrace any preposterous delusion rather than face an occasional bleak truth?

It is amazing that when someone else spouts the nonsense you yourself believe you can readily perceive it as nonsense

The truth doesn't always set you free; people prefer to believe prettier, neatley wrapped lies

For those of us who got into good colleges or the professions, did we stand up to that high school history teacher who told us some ridiculous lie about American history and say, "That's a ridiculous lie. You're an idiot"? No. We said, "All right, I'll keep quiet, and I'll write it in the exam and I'll think, yes, he's an idiot." And it's easy to say and believe things that improve your self-image and your career and that are in other ways beneficial to yourselves.

Sometimes when you get older — and I’m not talking about you, I’m talking generally, because everyone ages differently — things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe them, and before you know it they’re part of your history, and if someone challenges you on them and says they’re not true — why, then you get offended because you can’t remember the first part. All you know is that you’ve been called a liar.

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

Belief is in ignorance. If you know, you know. And it is good that if you don’t know, know that you don’t know — the belief can deceive you. The belief can create an atmosphere in your mind, where, without knowing, you start thinking that you know. Belief is not trust, and the more strongly you say that you believe totally, the more you are afraid of the doubt within you.

It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it.

Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.

Things we wish to be true are apt to gain too ready credit with us.

Truth is not always the best basis for happiness. There are certain lies which may constitute a far better and more secure foundation of happiness. There are people who perish when their eyes are opened.