Bertrand Russell: Zitate auf Englisch

"The Emotional Factor"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.
Often paraphrased as "The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
Kontext: You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress of humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or even mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

"Message from Bertrand Russell to the International Conference of Parlimentarians in Cairo, February 1970," reprinted in The New York Times (23 February 1970)
1960s
Kontext: The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was "given" by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East.

Quelle: The Impact of Science on Society

A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996), p. 544
Attributed from posthumous publications

Quelle: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

Quelle: The Conquest of Happiness

1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)

Quelle: 1920s, Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 8: Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness

1940s, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)

Quelle: The Problems of Philosophy

"The Moral Problem"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
Quelle: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
Kontext: There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

Quelle: Marriage and Morals