Bertrand Russell

Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?

Many people when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praiseworthy.

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.

Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.

In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.