“I resolved from the beginning of my quest that I would not be misled by sentiment and desire into beliefs for which there was no good evidence.”

— Bertrand Russell

Fact and Fiction (1961), Part I, Ch. 6: "The Pursuit of Truth", p. 37
1960s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I resolved from the beginning of my quest that I would not be misled by sentiment and desire into beliefs for which the…" by Bertrand Russell?

Bertrand Russell photo

Bertrand Russell562

logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970

Related quotes

“When Catullus expresses his love and hate for Lesbia, he is not obviously voicing a wish to rid himself of one or the other of these two sentiments. Not all contradictions resolve into temporal change of belief or desire.”

Raymond Geuss book Philosophy and Real Politics

Source: Philosophy and Real Politics (2008), Chapter 1.

“My religious belief is my own. It belongs to me, not to the State of Illinois. I would not smother one sentiment of my heart to be the Emperor of the round world.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

On refusing the Republican nomination for Illinois governor, as quoted in "Ingersoll the Magnificent" (11 August 1954) by Joseph Lewis http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/lewis/lewing01.htm <br class="br">Context: Good-by, gentlemen! I am not asking to be Governor of Illinois … I have in my composition that which I have declared to the world as my views upon religion. My position I would not, under any circumstances, not even for my life, seem to renounce. I would rather refuse to be President of the United States than to do so. My religious belief is my own. It belongs to me, not to the State of Illinois. I would not smother one sentiment of my heart to be the Emperor of the round world.

“I was infected with my desire, my resolve, to make it in broadcasting. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and how.”

Howard Cosell (1918–1995) American sportscaster

Cosell.

“My final belief is suffering. And I begin to believe that I do not suffer.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Mi última creencia es sufrir. Y comienzo a creer que no sufro.
Voces (1943)

“As I tried to understand my desire to “do good” and where it came from, I decided I did it because Jesus commanded that we care for the needy. But after I lost the faith, I remembered that I had always tried to do good and help others, and that the desire to act selflessly for others transcends religion. Though I didn’t have the words for it at the time, I was beginning to cultivate my Humanistic worldview.”

Chris Stedman (1987) American activist

Source: Faitheist (2012), Chapter 6, “Putting My Money Where Other People’s Mouths Are” (p. 109)

“My death is very near to me, and of this I am glad, for I desire to pursue the quest in other realms, as it has been promised to me that I shall do.”

H. Rider Haggard book Ayesha

Ayesha: The Return of She (1905), CHAPTER I, THE DOUBLE SIGN

“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not — and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul.”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Black Cat

The Black Cat (1843)

“While this is a legitimate place to begin, it is not the end… Even in simple asanas, one is experiencing the three levels of quest: the external quest, which brings firmness of the body; the internal quest, which brings steadiness of intelligence; and the innermost quest, which brings benevolence of spirit.”

B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) Indian yoga teacher and scholar

Light on Life: B.K.S. Iyengar's Yoga Insights

“If I had a desire, it would be to be free from desire.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

Rolling Stone interview (June 1970)

“Science has taught… me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonise with my aspirations.”

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist

1860s, Reply to Charles Kingsley (1860)

Related topics