The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “Bertrand Russell”

A Largeness of Contemplation: Bertrand Russell on Intuition, the Intellect, and the Nature of Time
A Largeness of Contemplation: Bertrand Russell on Intuition, the Intellect, and the Nature of Time

“Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.”

read article

The Four Desires Driving All Human Behavior: Bertrand Russell’s Magnificent Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
The Four Desires Driving All Human Behavior: Bertrand Russell’s Magnificent Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

“Nothing in the world is more exciting than a moment of sudden discovery or invention, and many more people are capable of experiencing such moments than is sometimes thought.”

read article

In Defense of Boredom: 200 Years of Ideas on the Virtues of Not-Doing from Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds
In Defense of Boredom: 200 Years of Ideas on the Virtues of Not-Doing from Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds

Bertrand Russell, Søren Kierkegaard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Susan Sontag, Adam Phillips, Renata Adler, and more.

read article

Bertrand Russell on the Vital Role of Boredom and “Fruitful Monotony” in Human Flourishing
Bertrand Russell on the Vital Role of Boredom and “Fruitful Monotony” in Human Flourishing

“A generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation… in whom every vital impulse slowly withers, as though they were cut flowers in a vase.”

read article

In Which Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw Collide on Their Bicycles
In Which Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw Collide on Their Bicycles

“Still I am not thoroughly convinced yet that I was not killed. Anybody but a vegetarian would have been.”

read article

Elevating Resolutions for the New Year Inspired by Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds
Elevating Resolutions for the New Year Inspired by Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds

Cultivate honorable relationships, resist absentminded busyness, tell the world how to treat you, embrace enoughness, and more.

read article

The Key to the Good Life: Bertrand Russell on Love and How to Stop Limiting Your Happiness
The Key to the Good Life: Bertrand Russell on Love and How to Stop Limiting Your Happiness

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love can produce a good life.”

read article

Bertrand Russell on Immortality, Why Religion Exists, and What “The Good Life” Really Means
Bertrand Russell on Immortality, Why Religion Exists, and What “The Good Life” Really Means

“There are forces making for happiness, and forces making for misery. We do not know which will prevail, but to act wisely we must be aware of both.”

read article

Happy Birthday, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: 21 Essential Reads on Education
Happy Birthday, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: 21 Essential Reads on Education

Bertrand Russell, Richard Feynman, Susan Sontag, Noam Chomsky, Isaac Asimov, Kio Stark, and more.

read article

Bertrand Russell on Human Nature, Construction vs. Destruction, and Science as a Key to Democracy
Bertrand Russell on Human Nature, Construction vs. Destruction, and Science as a Key to Democracy

On the art of acquiring “a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)