The Problems of Philosophy Quotes

“The free intellect will see as God might see, without a here and now, without hopes and fears, without the trammels of customary beliefs and traditional prejudices, calmly, dispassionately, in the sole and exclusive desire of knowledge -- knowledge as impersonal, as purely contemplative, as it is possible for man to attain.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Philosophic contemplation does not, in its widest survey, divide the universe into two hostile camps -- friends and foes, helpful and hostile, good and bad -- it views the whole impartially.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Unless we can so enlarge our interests as to include the whole outer world, we remain like a garrison in the beleaguered fortress, knowing that the enemy prevents escape and that ultimate surrender is inevitable.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“In such a life [of private interests] there is something feverish and confined, in comparison with which the philosophic life is calm and free.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“But it would seem that, whether answers be otherwise discoverable or not, the answers suggested by philosophy are none of them demonstrably true. Yet, however slight may be the hope of discovering an answer, it is part of the business of philosophy to continue the consideration of such questions, to make us aware of their importance, to examine all the approaches to them, and to keep alive that speculative interest in the universe which is apt to be killed by confining ourselves to definitely ascertainable knowledge.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“...As soon as the definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“The 'practical' man... is one who recognizes only material needs, who realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the necessity of providing food for the mind.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“...Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“It seems natural to suppose that self-consciousness is one of the things that distinguish men from animals: animals, we may suppose, though they have acquaintance with sense-data, never become aware of this acquaintance.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“we can only infer it, and can never be directly and immediately aware of it.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life. ✦✦✦”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“there is nothing real except minds and their ideas. Such philosophers are called 'idealists'. When they come to explaining matter, they either say, like Berkeley, that matter is really nothing but a collection of ideas, or they say, like Leibniz (1646-1716), that what appears as matter is really a collection of more or less rudimentary minds.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Hence, two very difficult questions at once arise; namely, (1) Is there a real table at all? (2) If so, what sort of object can it be?”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Similarly, it takes about eight minutes for the sun's light to reach us; thus, when we see the sun we are seeing the sun of eight minutes ago. So far as our sense-data afford evidence as to the physical sun they afford evidence as to the physical sun of eight minutes ago; if the physical sun had ceased to exist within the last eight minutes, that would make no difference to the sense-data which we call 'seeing the sun'. This affords a fresh illustration of the necessity of distinguishing between sense-data and physical objects.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“It is of course possible that all or any of our beliefs may be mistaken, and therefore all ought to be held with at least some slight element of doubt. But we cannot have reason to reject a belief except on the ground of some other belief. Hence, by organizing our instinctive beliefs and their consequences, by considering which among them is most possible, if necessary, to modify or abandon, we can arrive, on the basis of accepting as our sole data what we instinctively believe, at an orderly systematic organization of our knowledge, in which, though the possibility of error remains, its likelihood is diminished by the interrelation of the parts and by the critical scrutiny which has preceded acquiescence.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of modern philosophy, invented a method which may still be used with profit--the method of systematic doubt.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“very many philosophers, perhaps a majority, have held that there is nothing real except minds and their ideas. Such philosophers are called 'idealists'.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“In daily life, we assume as certain many things which, on a closer scrutiny, are found to be so full of apparent contradictions that only a great amount of thought enables us to know what it is that we really may believe.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“If any one asks: ‘Why should I accept the results of valid arguments based on true premisses?’ we can only answer by appealing to our principle. In fact, the truth of the principle is impossible to doubt, and its obviousness is so great that at first sight it seems almost trivial. Such principles, however, are not trivial to the philosopher, for they show that we may have indubitable knowledge which is in no way derived from objects of sense. The”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“It has been argued that we have reason to know that the future will resemble the past, because what was the future has constantly become the past, and has always been found to resemble the past, so that we really have experience of the future, namely of times which were formerly future, which we may call past futures. But such an argument really begs the very question at issue. We have experience of past futures, but not of future futures, and the question is: Will future futures resemble past futures? This question is not to be answered by an argument which starts from past futures alone. We have therefore still to seek for some principle which shall enable us to know that the future will follow the same laws as the past. The”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life. CHAPTER”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life.’
—Bertrand Russell, “The Problems of Philosophy”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Has the universe any unity of plan or purpose, or is it a fortuitous concourse of atoms? Is consciousness a permanent part of the universe, giving hope of indefinite growth in wisdom, or is it a transitory accident on a small planet on which life must ultimately become impossible? Are good and evil of importance to the universe or only to man?”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Going backward over the day, I find things of which I am quite certain, other things of which I am almost certain, other things of which I can become certain by thought and by calling up attendant circumstances, and some things of which I am by no means certain.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“There is a common impression that everything that we believe ought to be capable of proof, or at least of being shown to be highly probable. It is felt by many that a belief for which no reason can be given is an unreasonable belief. In the main, this view is just. Almost all our common beliefs are either inferred, or capable of being inferred, from other beliefs which may be regarded as giving the reason for them.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“It will be seen that no sentence can be made up without at least one word which denotes a universal”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“Seeing that nearly all the words to be found in the dictionary stand for universals, it is strange that hardly anybody except students of philosophy ever”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

“All pure mathematics is a priori, like logic.”
― Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy