“Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.”
“We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so.”
The ABC of Relativity (1925), p. 166
1920s
Variant: "Most people would rather die than think; many do."
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
OK! Magazine http://www.okmagazine.com/news/view/4676 (February 20, 2008)
A 58
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook A (1765-1770)
Dummett, M. A. E. The Logical Basis of Metaphysics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1991.
An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
1920s
"Susan Sontag: The Rolling Stone Interview" with Jonathan Cott (1978; published 4 October 1979)
Context: One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feeling... which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment. We have more or less the same bodies, but very different kinds of thoughts. I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.