Do not feel certain of anything.
Interpretation
Certainty can be misleading and can limit our understanding and growth.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell emphasizes the importance of embracing uncertainty as a means to foster inquiry and growth. By recognizing that nothing is certain, we open ourselves up to new ideas and perspectives, which enhances our understanding of the world and encourages critical thinking.
In practice
In a discussion about scientific theories, one might quote this to highlight the evolving nature of knowledge.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
As for politics, Iβm an anarchist. I hate governments and rules and fetters. Canβt stand caged animals. People must be free.
People need to see that, far from being an obstacle, the world's diversity of languages, religions and traditions is a great treasure, affording us precious opportunities to recognize ourselves in others.
As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead.
Tota vita nihil aliud quam ad mortem iter est._x000D_ _x000D_ The whole of life is nothing but a journey to death.
Watch the clouds. They will teach you about the world of form.
I'm still there, watching those possessed children, as far away from the mystery now as I was then. I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.
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