The world that I should wish to see would be one freed from the virulence of group hostilities and capable of realizing that happiness for all is to be derived rather from co-operation than from strife. I should wish to see a world in which education aimed at mental freedom rather than imprisoning the minds of the young in rigid armor of dogma calculated to protect them through life against the shafts of impartial evidence.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for a world where cooperation replaces conflict and education promotes mental freedom rather than dogma.
Bertrand Russell envisions a society liberated from group conflicts, advocating that true happiness stems from cooperative endeavors rather than strife. He emphasizes the importance of education that fosters independent thinking and openness to evidence, as opposed to rigid dogmas that stifle intellectual growth and understanding. Russell's vision calls for a collective effort to create a harmonious world through mutual respect and learning.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion on the importance of collaborative efforts in community projects.
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.
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.
Gender is not an easy conversation to have. It makes people uncomfortable, sometimes even irritable. Both men and women are resistant to talk about gender or are quick to dismiss the problems of gender. Because thinking of changing the status quo is always uncomfortable.
The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul. Thus they are easily led by the opinions of others, are content to let their impressions be shuffled and rearranged and evaluated differently.
The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.
In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
The system will always be defended by those countless people who have enough intellect to defend but not quite enough to innovate.
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