Bertrand Russell

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

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.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

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

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

I am a mathematician and a logician, and I do not find it easy to be human.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world suffers.

The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.

I am not a fan of the human race.

It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.

I consider myself a rationalist, which is a very different thing from being a rationalist.

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Anything you're good at, you can make money from. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

There is a great deal of difference between an open mind and an empty head.