Bertrand Russell Quotes

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosives and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy. And a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own

There will always be people for whom hate is easier when it’s not backed up by anything but fear.

The roots of homophobia are fear. Fear and more fear.

Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness.

With most people, strangers are not only enemies, but inferiors.

Superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.

Ignorance breeds fear and hatred.

Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand... prejudice, fear and ignorance walk hand-in-hand.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

Whatever is not commonly seen is condemned as alien.

You tend to be afraid when someone seems foreign to you. But if you aren't careful, that can lead to bigotry.

If bigots behave like bigots, it's not a huge surprise.

Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.

Prejudice is a learned trait. You're not born prejudiced; you're taught it.

Folks never understand the folks they hate.

Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less than fully human. It's a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated.

A child from the age of 2 or 3 absorbs what is in the environment and what generates hatred for anyone perceived to be different.

Aversion toward the blind exists for the same reason that most prejudices exist: lack of knowledge. Ignorance is a powerful generator of fear. And fear slides easily into aggression and contempt.

Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.

When an individual, a sect, a clique or a nation hates and despises another individual, sect, clique or nation, he or they simply do not know the objects of their hatred. Ignorance is at the bottom of it.

It is what people do not know that they persecute each other about.

There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary.

There are weapons that are simply thoughts. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy.

In England, people don't like me.

Man is not man, but a wolf to those he does not know.