“My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Greek Exercises (1888), written two days after his sixteenth birthday.
Youth
Context: I should like to believe my people's religion, which was just what I could wish, but alas, it is impossible. I have really no religion, for my God, being a spirit shown merely by reason to exist, his properties utterly unknown, is no help to my life. I have not the parson's comfortable doctrine that every good action has its reward, and every sin is forgiven. My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.