“Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.”

— Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)

About Bertrand Russell

1872 – 1970

British philosopher and logician, Nobel laureate in Literature (1950).

“The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”

“There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”

“My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.”

“Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.”

“Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.”

“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

“Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute.”

“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.”

“If you teach a man anything he will never learn it.”