Bertrand Russell

“There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.”

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

“The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.”

“The method of "postulating" what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.”

“To realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.”

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death.”

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”

“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.”

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”

“Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.”

“Most people would sooner die than think — in fact, they do so.”

“It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.”

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