Quotes from Lord Bertrand Russell

DarkMagician said:
To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, "I hate quotation. Tell me what you know."
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I'm going to break tradition and QFT myself from post #2:

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
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(Lest there be a misunderstanding DM, I'm not referring to you.)
 
Here's another quote from Lord Russell that some may find interesting:

I had said in the first draft that I found him “surprisingly unlicked”. I found him not only impetuous but “aggressive and entirely undisciplined and I realised that these characteristics might well make him seem a ‘dangerous young man’”, as I had been warned that he was, “to anyone of whom he did not approve.” I early recognized his lively instinct for self-dramatization, his swash-buckling assumption of the importance of his own role in the centre of the stage. His conviction of his unshakable belief in the penetration and breadth of his understanding were obvious. I did not for some time, however, grasp the closely related characteristic of his utter incapability of imparting reliable information. His reports of people’s reactions and his observations were—and unfortunately, I fear, still are—very often excessively and misleadingly incorrect and his quotations must always be verified. I was impressed by his courage, both moral and physical, although it too often flouted necessary caution and resulted in unnecessary provocation. And I was impressed by his generosity in helping anyone of whom he thought well or thought to be suffering injustice, although it often led to useless waste of effort and money, both of which might have been far more advantageously spent.
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One who believes as I do, that free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism as much as to the Church of Rome. The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.

– Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, 1920
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Foster Zygote said:
The quotes you have selected are from an examination of the abuses and potential abuses of modern totalitarian regimes. Nowhere does Russell state that he advocates these abuses or feels them to be justified.
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Russell's evaluation of communism is remarkable for someone of the left, in 1920. Many leftists were starry-eyes about the Soviet Union sixty years later. Russell saw what was going to happen, and why.
 
matrixcutter said:
Are you the class clown?
Don't let anybody ever tell you that you're not a comedy genius.
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Hi matrixcutter. I apologize in advance for this, and what I'm about to say may say more about me that you, but...I find it absolutely impossible to take seriously anybody with a screen name of "matrixcutter."

Yes, I know -- attack the argument, not the person. But I'm not attacking the person, just the screen name. I mean, c'mon -- "matrixcutter"?? I can't even write that without literally laughing out loud. Matrixcutter!!
 
At the risk of sounding like a n00b, who is Alan Watt?
 
Stellafane said:
Hi matrixcutter. I apologize in advance for this, and what I'm about to say may say more about me that you, but...I find it absolutely impossible to take seriously anybody with a screen name of "matrixcutter."

Yes, I know -- attack the argument, not the person. But I'm not attacking the person, just the screen name. I mean, c'mon -- "matrixcutter"?? I can't even write that without literally laughing out loud. Matrixcutter!!
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lol!! He literally (meaning figuratively) "cuts the matrix" - that´s what it means.

anyway - glass houses? You sound like a cross between Stephanie and Cellophane ;)
 
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