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  • Rated by alice44 on Feb 13 2009, 11:05am

    "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -Bertrand Russell

  • Rated by JIR on Dec 19 2008, 11:52am

    From the page: 'The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -Bertrand Russell Definitely true, or do you want trouble with me?

  • Rated by Hamfish on Dec 09 2008, 3:56am

    Yes I've always been a great fan of Bertrand Russel

  • Rated by foreignergrl on Dec 08 2008, 6:00pm

    Bertrand Russell Yeah, all he said. "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." "Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand . . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race." "Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons." "The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the...passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life." "Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death....Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man." "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." "The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way." "Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life." "Although it is a gloomy view to suppose that life will die out, sometimes when I contemplate the things that people do with their lives I think it is almost a consolation." "Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones." "What men really want is not knowledge but certainty." "I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race." "I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true."

  • Reviewed by stumblz7 on Dec 07 2008, 8:45pm

    From the page: Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure. -Bertrand Russel