British - Philosopher | May 18, 1872 - February 2, 1970
There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
Bertrand Russell
KnowledgeUselessPleasureMuch
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
LongYouHealthyNowQuestionHang
To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.
LiveAgePhilosophyTeachCertainty
A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.
WorkPeopleWishPersonalDuty
The coward wretch whose hand and heart Can bear to torture aught below, Is ever first to quail and start From the slightest pain or equal foe.
HeartPainStartHandBearFirst
If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.
LifeHappinessCircumstancesPersonal
Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.
PeopleCriticismFuryDeparture
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
PatriotismWillingnessReasons
The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.
PurposeUniverseKnowNothingMay
Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.
UnityHumanInventionsOrderJust
It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals.
FateSeemsIdealsDestroysForm
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.
WomenMenTeethNeverHimTwice
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