“Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.”
Source: 1950s, Unpopular Essays (1950)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Bertrand Russell 562
logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970Related quotes

The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Duty of Inquiry
Context: The harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others, and consequent support of false beliefs. Habitual want of care about what I believe leads to habitual want of care in others about the truth of what is told to me. Men speak the truth of one another when each reveres the truth in his own mind and in the other's mind; but how shall my friend revere the truth in my mind when I myself am careless about it, when I believe thing because I want to believe them, and because they are comforting and pleasant? Will he not learn to cry, "Peace," to me, when there is no peace? By such a course I shall surround myself with a thick atmosphere of falsehood and fraud, and in that I must live. It may matter little to me, in my cloud-castle of sweet illusions and darling lies; but it matters much to Man that I have made my neighbours ready to deceive. The credulous man is father to the liar and the cheat; he lives in the bosom of this his family, and it is no marvel if he should become even as they are.

The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority

On her second husband, Mickey Hargitay
Here They Are Jayne Mansfield (1992)

Audio lectures, Creationism and Psychology (n. d.)
Source: The Greening of America (1970), Chapter VII : "It's Just Like Living", p. 162
Source: The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo