“The more we realize our minuteness and our impotence in the face of cosmic forces the more astonishing becomes what human beings have achieved.”
More from Bertrand Russell on Philosophy
“The whole conception of 'sin' is one which I find very puzzling, doubtless owing to my sinful nature.”
“Liberation from the tyranny of the body contributes to greatness, but just as much to greatness in sin as to greatness in virtue.”
“We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.”
“Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.”
“The central problem of our age is how to act decisively in the absence of certainty.”
“The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.”
“Mathematics possesses not only truth but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere like that of a sculpture.”
“'Change' is scientific 'progress' is ethical change is indubitable whereas progress is a matter of controversy.”
“War grows out of ordinary human nature.”
Others on Philosophy
Ludwig Wittgenstein
22 quotes“The logic of the world is prior to all truth and falsehood.”
Christopher Hitchens
22 quotes“How much vanity must be concealed – not too effectively at that – in order to pretend that one is the personal object of...”
Nietzsche
22 quotes“One does not hate as long as one has a low esteem of someone, but only when one esteems him as an equal or a superior.”
Carl Jung
21 quotes“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”
Immanuel Kant
20 quotes“Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.”
Heraclitus
19 quotes“All things flow nothing abides.”
H. L. Mencken
17 quotes“We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.”
C.S. Lewis
15 quotes“[Consciousness] is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
14 quotes“Consciousness is man's greatest misfortune, still I know that man loves it and will not exchange it for any satisfaction...”
Napoleon
14 quotes“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
Samuel Beckett
14 quotes“The end is in the beginning and yet you go on.”
Buddha
13 quotes“Doubt everything. Find your own light.”