Bertrand Russell Quotes

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points.

Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.

Only the fools are certain and assured.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

What is important is that one utilizes one's intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one's convictions. One should always leave room for doubt.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

Doubt is not below knowledge, but above it.

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.

I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It.

The more I see, the less I know.

I have teken refuge in the doctrine that advises one not to seek tranquility in certainty but in permanently suspended judgement.

I'm suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.

We must be fully committed, but we must also be aware at the same time that we might possibly be wrong. People who claim to be absolutely convinced that their stand is the only right one...is a dead giveaway of unconscious doubt. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

Belief is tricky because left to its own devices, it can court a kind of surety, an unquestioning allegiance that fears doubt and destroys difference.

I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

I think the biggest mistake I made was this wretched ability to see both sides of an argument.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.