“To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.”

— Bertrand Russell, Mortals and Others, 1931–35

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.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

“For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”

“A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”

“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”

“Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.”