Bertrand Russell: “The Problem with the World Is That Fools & Fanatics Are So Certain of Themselves”

russell rules 2

Image by J. F. Horra­bin, via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons

“The whole prob­lem with the world is that fools and fanat­ics are always so cer­tain of them­selves, but wis­er peo­ple so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Rus­sell

Our hearts go out to the fam­i­lies and friends who lost loved ones in Orlan­do this morn­ing.

 

 

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Bertrand Russell’s Ten Com­mand­ments for Liv­ing in a Healthy Democ­ra­cy

Lis­ten to ‘Why I Am Not a Chris­t­ian,’ Bertrand Russell’s Pow­er­ful Cri­tique of Reli­gion (1927)

Bertrand Rus­sell and F.C. Cople­ston Debate the Exis­tence of God, 1948

1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties


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Comments (3)
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  • rico lebrun says:

    He said that with such cer­tain­ty.

  • Colin Wills says:

    I think we can be cer­tain he was nei­ther fool nor fanat­ic.

  • Andrew B Brown says:

    He did­n’t know that the fools and fanat­ics were psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly con­di­tioned and select­ed for their posi­tions, so we’d ignore the wis­er ones.

    The wis­er ones are psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly con­di­tioned also, by con­stant­ly giv­ing them rea­sons to doubt (mak­ing them think more).

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