“Thinking ill of others is not in itself a good reason for thinking well of ourselves.”

— Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight, 1917

About Bertrand Russell

1872 – 1970

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

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

“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.”

“Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement.”

“Remember that all is opinion.”

“The universe is flux, life is opinion.”

“He had only one vanity; he thought he could give advice better than any other person.”

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem—in my opinion—to characterize our age.”

“The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”