Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid .. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. . Bertrand Russell
About This Quote

In the mid nineteenth century, a young man named Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a series of essays called Nature. The essays were based on his observations while traveling through the country. In one essay, he described a man who had been struck by lightning and killed. The man had a few words with his friend before the lightning took him, and these words remain one of the most profound and memorable passages in all of literature: “The great tragedy in this world is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.”

Source: Why Men Fight

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More Quotes By Bertrand Russell
  1. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

  2. To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3-parts dead.

  3. Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

  4. Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean...

  5. Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

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