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Bertrand Russell

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

Portrait of Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Leading the British 'revolt against idealism' in the early 1900s he is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with Gottlob Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians.

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Listen to A.C. Grayling on Bertrand Russell's theory of descriptions

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

If all our happiness is bound up in our personal circumstances, it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.

Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.