Thoughts by Bertrand Russell

May you find inspiration in these thoughts and quotes by Bertrand Russell from my large Daily Inspiration library of inspiring quotes and inspirational words.

A widespread belief is more often likely
to be foolish than sensible.
- Bertrand Russell

Related topics: Wisdom

Conventional people are roused to fury
by departure from convention,
largely because they regard such departure
as a criticism of themselves.
- Bertrand Russell

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown
is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
- Bertrand Russell

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry,
that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware
of having no good reason for thinking as you do.
- Bertrand Russell

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- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
- Bertrand Russell

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct,
and tends to produce ferocity toward
those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
- Bertrand Russell

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
- Bertrand Russell

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation
can be trusted to act humanely
or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
- Bertrand Russell

I am firm; YOU are obstinate; HE is a pig-headed fool.
- Bertrand Russell

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something;
in the absence of good grounds for belief,
he will be satisfied with bad ones.
- Bertrand Russell

It is the things for which there is no evidence
that are believed with passion.
- Bertrand Russell

One should respect public opinion insofar
as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison,
but anything that goes beyond this
is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
- Bertrand Russell

Faith is a living and unshakable confidence,
a belief in the grace of God so assured that
a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.
- Martin Luther

The inherent nature of God
is not changed by our individual beliefs,
our religious institutions,
or our communal traditions.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When all is said and done,
the one sole condition that makes
spiritual happiness and preserves it
is the absence of doubt.
- Mark Twain

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul
grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Envy comes from people's ignorance of,
or lack of belief in, their own gifts.
- Jean Vanier

What people believe prevails over the truth.
- Sophocles

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anyone can heal who believes that he can
and will take the time to put that belief into motion.
- Ernest Holmes

Prayer is a thought, a belief, a feeling,
arising within the mind of the one praying.
- Ernest Holmes

Our grandchildren's grandchildren will shake their heads in shame
at some of the beliefs that we hold most dear today -
the question is, which ones?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
- Terry Goodkind

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west;
people create distinctions out of their own minds
and then believe them to be true.
- The Buddha

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want.
It is the belief that God will do what is right.
- Max Lucado

When an inner situation is not made conscious,
it appears outside as fate.
- Carl Jung

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -
and you are the easiest person to fool.
- Richard Feynman

Believe that life is worth living,
and your belief will help create the fact.
- William James

Dumbo! C'mon, fly! Open them ears!
The magic feather was just a gag!
You can fly! Honest, you can!
- Timothy Q. Mouse in the movie Dumbo

The thing always happens that you really believe in;
and the belief in a thing makes it happen.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
- Michel de Montaigne

Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail.
- Helen Keller

The final delusion is the belief
that one has lost all delusions.
- Maurice Chapelain

The greatest force in the human body
is the natural drive of the body to heal itself -
but that force in not independent of the belief system.
Everything begins with belief.
What we believe is the most powerful option of all.
- Norman Cousins

Belief fuels our decisions -
even when we are not clearly aware of those beliefs.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

It is not our place to know the mind of God.
Spirit knows what is best in the long run -
best for each of us individually,
and best for humanity as a whole.
This is often very difficult to accept
when we see war and disease in the world
and experience physical and emotional suffering
in ourselves, our family, and our friends.
I consider this belief in God's infinite power
and ultimate wisdom to be the true test of faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Contrary to general belief,
I do not believe that friends are necessarily
the people you like best,
they are merely the people who got there first.
- Peter Ustinov

I want to share with you the three rules
that I have in order to accept an apprentice.
Rule Number 1: Don't believe me.
I don't want you to believe me
but I want you to listen and make choices - your choices.
If what I say, doesn't work for you, leave it.
But if it works for you and that's what you want, then make it yours.
Rule Number 2: Don't believe yourself.
Why? Because most of your belief system is a lie - it's not true.
And by believing yourself, you create all the limitations
that don't allow you to be what you really are.
Don't believe yourself. Listen to what you say,
listen to what you think, listen to what you believe.
And when you listen, open your ears, open your mind,
open your intelligence and make choices.
Rule 3 is, don't believe anybody else.
Don't believe them at all.
Open your ears and your mind; listen and make choices.
- don Miguel Ruiz

The only way to store information is by agreement.
The belief system is like a Book of Law that rules our mind.
Our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive.
Humans punish themselves endlessly
for not being what they believe they should be.
We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others,
but we cannot accept and love ourselves.
- don Miguel Ruiz

There is a secret wisdom-of-the-ages
that holds the key to breaking our
cycle of self-imposed suffering.
The secret wisdom is, "Life is not supposed to be fair."
This is not sad news. This is GLORIOUS news!
Life is not broken. Nothing is wrong.
God has not failed, died, or gone on vacation.
The world is working perfectly. We just misunderstood.
Somewhere along the way, someone got the idea that
life was "supposed" to be "fair,"
and all the trouble started -
expectation, disappointment, resentment, anger -
a whole cycle of suffering that began
with the belief that life is "supposed" to be "fair."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Our faith gives us knowledge of something better.
- E. F. Schumacher

Faith is the bird that feels the light
and sings when the dawn is still dark.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Faith is taking the first step,
even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The jump is so frightening
between where I am,
and where I want to be.
Because of all I may become,
I will close my eyes and leap.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

The great gift of Easter is hope -
Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God,
in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love,
which nothing can shake.
- Basil C. Hume

Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us
that we are nothing but acorns
and that our greatest happiness will be
to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns;
but that is of interest only to pigs.
Our faith gives us knowledge of something better:
that we can become oak trees.
- E. F. Schumacher

Today is the bridge between acceptance and faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You must not lose faith in humanity.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You just have to have a simple faith.
- Jimmy Carter

Now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
- Corinthians 13:13

One who has any faith in God
should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry,
and one who has any faith in God
should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

What does it profit, my brethren,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can faith save him?
- James 2:14

Only he can take great resolves who has
indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Faith has to do with things that are not seen
and hope with things that are not at hand.
- Saint Thomas Aquinas.

This is my wish for you:
Comfort on difficult days,
Smiles when sadness intrudes,
Rainbows to follow the clouds,
Laughter to kiss your lips,
Sunsets to warm your heart,
Hugs when spirits sag,
Beauty for your eyes to see,
Friendships to brighten your being,
Faith so that you can believe,
Confidence for when you doubt,
Courage to know yourself,
Patience to accept the truth,
Love to complete your life.
- Anonymous

Every tomorrow has two handles.
We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety
or the handle of faith.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
- Benjamin Franklin [attributed]

The smallest seed of faith is better than
the largest fruit of happiness.
- Henry David Thoreau

You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Can you imagine a life with no fear?
What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats?
- Max Lucado

Faith is trusting in the good.
Fear is putting your trust in the bad.
- Rhonda Byrne

Faith is the highest passion in a human being.
Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
- Soren Kierkegaard

If patience is worth anything,
it must endure to the end of time.
And a living faith will last
in the midst of the blackest storm.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Those of true faith don't require guaranteed security.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I will gather myself around my faith,
for light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal,
and then leap in the dark to our success.
- Henry David Thoreau

The antidotes for worry are gratitude, action, service, and faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If you have a particular faith or religion,
that is good. But you can survive without it.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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