Bertrand Russell

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.

Isn’t it amazing how easily you can cheat yourself out of the right choices by convincing yourself that you “deserve” the wrong ones? It’s highly illogical when you think about it. You deserve a better life, you deserve better health, and you deserve to lose weight.

I do not believe, even remotely, that you have to have a partner in your life in order to be whole, in order to be complete, in order to be fulfilled. You just don’t have to.

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.

You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.

Forgiveness of those who have transgressed against you, or those you love, is not about them; it is about you. It is a gift to yourself.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.

Since the past is unreal and the future is unreal, all your thoughts are about nothing.

If someone out there doesn’t agree with me, then somewhere a village is missing their idiot.

You never miss what you’ve never had. I never had any other life. I didn’t know any other life.

Being both soft and strong is a combination very few have mastered.

Pardon me if I haunt you tonight.

Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.