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The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1: 1872-1914
First British edition of Volume 1 of Bertrand Russell's autobiography, covering 1872 to 1914 -- the early years before World War I. In this introduction to his life, he describes a Victorian and Edwardian world that was dashed to pieces in World War I -- a secure and fascinating society people by illustrious politicians, great philosophers, and eccentric relatives. Illustrated with black and white photos. 230 pages.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
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About the author
Bertrand Russell
1,252 books7,316 followersBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS, was a Welsh philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, advocate for social reform, pacifist, and prominent rationalist. Although he was usually regarded as English, as he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
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February 15, 2025
মাত্র ১২ বছর বয়সে প্রথম যৌনতাকে আবিষ্কার করেন বার্ট্রান্ড রাসেল। তার এক ইঁচড়েপাকা বন্ধু ও বাসার এক কিশোর গৃহকর্মী এক্ষেত্রে তাকে নারী-পুরুষ সম্পর্কের বিস্তারিত বুঝিয়ে বলে। এরপর কিশোর রাসেলের মগজে যৌনতা নিয়ে অলীক কল্পনা কাজ করতে থাকে। সারাদিন তার একটাই চিন্তা। তা হলো যৌনতা। দিনরাত তিনি ও তার সমমনা কয়েকজন মিলে শুধু যৌনতা নিয়েই কথা বলতেন। নারীদেহ কিশোর রাসেলকে চরমভাবে আকর্ষিত করতে থাকে। একপর্যায়ে বাসার তরুণী গৃহকর্মীকে রাজি করান রাসেল। তাকে বাসার গোপন কক্ষে নিয়ে চুমু দেন ও জড়িয়ে ধরেন। তখন রাসেলের বয়স মাত্র ১৫ বছর। পরিণত বয়সে আত্মজীবনী লিখেছেন মনীষী বার্ট্রান্ড রাসেল। সেখানে নিজের কিশোরবেলার 'কদর্য' ঘটনাকে গোপন করার চেষ্টা করেনি। অসম্ভব সততা নিয়ে লিখেছেন। এখানেই বোধহয় রাসেলের আত্মজীবনীর সার্থকতা। তিনি নিজের জীবনের অপ্রিয় ঘটনাগুলোকে এড়িয়ে যাননি। আত্মজীবনীর প্রথম খণ্ডে রাসেলের জন্ম থেকে ১৯১৪ সাল পর্যন্ত ঘটনাবলি স্থান পেয়েছে।
একসময় রাসেল আবিষ্কার করলেন যৌনতাই জগতের সবকিছু নয়। চরম হতাশা তাকে গ্রাস করল। সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়েছিলেন নিজেকে শেষ করে দেবেন। তখন তার বয়স ২২ বছর। কিন্তু গণিতের প্রতি ভালোবাসা তাকে আত্মহননের পথ বেছে নিতে দেয়নি। এরপর গণিত নিয়ে তার গবেষণা ও পড়াশোনার বর্ণনা। বাকিদের সঙ্গে তা নিয়ে পত্রালাপের বিবরণ পাতার পর পাতা রয়েছে। সেগুলো আমাকে বিরক্ত করেছে।
রাসেলের জীবনে ভালোবাসার মানুষের কখনো অভাব হয়নি। তার প্রথম স্ত্রী এলিসের সঙ্গে পরিচয় ও তা গভীর সম্পর্কে রূপ নেওয়ার পূর্ণ বিবরণ রাসেল দিয়েছেন। এলিসকে লেখা তার চিঠিগুলো নিয়ে উল্লেখ করেছেন। বোঝা যায় এলিসকে নিয়ে গভীরভাবে ভালোবাসতেন। বিয়ে ও যৌনতা নিয়েও খোলামেলা লিখেছেন রাসেল। রক্ষণশীল, আদতে ভণ্ড সমাজের বাসিন্দা হয়ে এই বিবরণ পড়তে অস্বস্তিবোধ করিনি - একথা বললে অসত্য বলা হবে।
প্রথম স্ত্রী এলিসের সঙ্গে নয় বছর ছিলেন রাসেল। একদিন আবিষ্কার করলেন এলিসের প্রতি তার কোনো ভালোবাসা অবশিষ্ট নেই। কোনো অনুভূতিই কাজ করছে না এলিসের জন্য। বরং এলিসের খামতিগুলো চোখে পড়বে বড়ো করে। এলিসের মা অর্থাৎ রাসেলের শাশুড়ির দোষত্রুটিগুলোও এখন আর চোখ এড়িয়ে যাচ্ছে না। উল্টো বড়ো হয়ে দেখা দিচ্ছে। তাই রাসেল মনেপ্রাণে বিচ্ছেদ চাইছিলেন এলিসের সঙ্গে।
এলিস ও রাসেল আলাদা থাকেন। আনুষ্ঠানিক বিবাহবিচ্ছেদ হয়নি তখনো। লেবার পার্টির নির্বাচনি প্রচারণায় গিয়ে দুই সন্তানের জননী অসামান্য রূপসী অটোলিনের সঙ্গে পরিচয় হলো রাসেলের। তাতেই মজেই গেলেন তিনি। অটোলিনের স্বামী ও সংসার আছে। রাসেলেরও স্ত্রী আছে। এই নিয়ে এক ধরনের জটিলতা তৈরি হয়।
এলিসের সঙ্গে বিচ্ছেদের পরপরই অটোলিনকে গ্রহণ করেননি রাসেল। এক গ্রিস রমণীর সঙ্গে কিছুটা ঘনিষ্ঠতা জন্মে। তবে তা গাঢ় হয়নি।
রাসেলের দাদা ব্রিটেনের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ছিলেন। তিনি অত্যন্ত অভিজাত পরিবারের সন্তান। তার বাবা হাউস অফ লর্ডসের সদস্য ছিলেন। জন্মনিয়ন্ত্রণের পক্ষে সংসদে কথা বলায় তার সংসদসদস্য চলে যায়। অন্যদিকে, রাসেলের দাদা-দাদি ছিলেন অত্যন্ত রক্ষণশীল। বাবা-মায়ের ছায়ায় বড়ো হওয়ার আগেই তারা মারা যান। রাসেলের বেড়ে ওঠা বেশ অন্যরকম। দাদি ও ফুপুরা চাইতেন তিনিও রক্ষণশীল হয়ে বেড়ে উঠুন। অথচ পিতার মর্জি ছিল রাসেলকে উদারবাদী হিসেবে তৈরি করার। সবমিলিয়ে রাসেলের শৈশব ও কৈশোরের বিভিন্ন ঘটনাই তার মনন গঠনে ভূমিকা রাখে। বার্ট্রান্ড রাসেলকে বুঝতে হলে তার বেড়ে ওঠাকে উপলব্ধি করার জরুরি।
আত্মজীবনী হিসেবে সুখপাঠ্য নয়। অনেক অদরকারি ঘটনায় ভরা। বিশেষ করে, চিঠিগুলো। তবুও বার্ট্রান্ড রাসেলের সততা তার আত্মকথাকে অন্যরকম উচ্চতায় নিয়ে গেছে।
একসময় রাসেল আবিষ্কার করলেন যৌনতাই জগতের সবকিছু নয়। চরম হতাশা তাকে গ্রাস করল। সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়েছিলেন নিজেকে শেষ করে দেবেন। তখন তার বয়স ২২ বছর। কিন্তু গণিতের প্রতি ভালোবাসা তাকে আত্মহননের পথ বেছে নিতে দেয়নি। এরপর গণিত নিয়ে তার গবেষণা ও পড়াশোনার বর্ণনা। বাকিদের সঙ্গে তা নিয়ে পত্রালাপের বিবরণ পাতার পর পাতা রয়েছে। সেগুলো আমাকে বিরক্ত করেছে।
রাসেলের জীবনে ভালোবাসার মানুষের কখনো অভাব হয়নি। তার প্রথম স্ত্রী এলিসের সঙ্গে পরিচয় ও তা গভীর সম্পর্কে রূপ নেওয়ার পূর্ণ বিবরণ রাসেল দিয়েছেন। এলিসকে লেখা তার চিঠিগুলো নিয়ে উল্লেখ করেছেন। বোঝা যায় এলিসকে নিয়ে গভীরভাবে ভালোবাসতেন। বিয়ে ও যৌনতা নিয়েও খোলামেলা লিখেছেন রাসেল। রক্ষণশীল, আদতে ভণ্ড সমাজের বাসিন্দা হয়ে এই বিবরণ পড়তে অস্বস্তিবোধ করিনি - একথা বললে অসত্য বলা হবে।
প্রথম স্ত্রী এলিসের সঙ্গে নয় বছর ছিলেন রাসেল। একদিন আবিষ্কার করলেন এলিসের প্রতি তার কোনো ভালোবাসা অবশিষ্ট নেই। কোনো অনুভূতিই কাজ করছে না এলিসের জন্য। বরং এলিসের খামতিগুলো চোখে পড়বে বড়ো করে। এলিসের মা অর্থাৎ রাসেলের শাশুড়ির দোষত্রুটিগুলোও এখন আর চোখ এড়িয়ে যাচ্ছে না। উল্টো বড়ো হয়ে দেখা দিচ্ছে। তাই রাসেল মনেপ্রাণে বিচ্ছেদ চাইছিলেন এলিসের সঙ্গে।
এলিস ও রাসেল আলাদা থাকেন। আনুষ্ঠানিক বিবাহবিচ্ছেদ হয়নি তখনো। লেবার পার্টির নির্বাচনি প্রচারণায় গিয়ে দুই সন্তানের জননী অসামান্য রূপসী অটোলিনের সঙ্গে পরিচয় হলো রাসেলের। তাতেই মজেই গেলেন তিনি। অটোলিনের স্বামী ও সংসার আছে। রাসেলেরও স্ত্রী আছে। এই নিয়ে এক ধরনের জটিলতা তৈরি হয়।
এলিসের সঙ্গে বিচ্ছেদের পরপরই অটোলিনকে গ্রহণ করেননি রাসেল। এক গ্রিস রমণীর সঙ্গে কিছুটা ঘনিষ্ঠতা জন্মে। তবে তা গাঢ় হয়নি।
রাসেলের দাদা ব্রিটেনের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ছিলেন। তিনি অত্যন্ত অভিজাত পরিবারের সন্তান। তার বাবা হাউস অফ লর্ডসের সদস্য ছিলেন। জন্মনিয়ন্ত্রণের পক্ষে সংসদে কথা বলায় তার সংসদসদস্য চলে যায়। অন্যদিকে, রাসেলের দাদা-দাদি ছিলেন অত্যন্ত রক্ষণশীল। বাবা-মায়ের ছায়ায় বড়ো হওয়ার আগেই তারা মারা যান। রাসেলের বেড়ে ওঠা বেশ অন্যরকম। দাদি ও ফুপুরা চাইতেন তিনিও রক্ষণশীল হয়ে বেড়ে উঠুন। অথচ পিতার মর্জি ছিল রাসেলকে উদারবাদী হিসেবে তৈরি করার। সবমিলিয়ে রাসেলের শৈশব ও কৈশোরের বিভিন্ন ঘটনাই তার মনন গঠনে ভূমিকা রাখে। বার্ট্রান্ড রাসেলকে বুঝতে হলে তার বেড়ে ওঠাকে উপলব্ধি করার জরুরি।
আত্মজীবনী হিসেবে সুখপাঠ্য নয়। অনেক অদরকারি ঘটনায় ভরা। বিশেষ করে, চিঠিগুলো। তবুও বার্ট্রান্ড রাসেলের সততা তার আত্মকথাকে অন্যরকম উচ্চতায় নিয়ে গেছে।
January 25, 2014
Great for BR fans. At times hilarious and at others intimate, BR's first-hand observations of those around him are priceless, and his ruminations on religion, philosophy, and mathematics are penetrating and absorbing. In marked contrast, I found some of his letters - especially the love letters - to be tedious and stilted.
May 31, 2015
Quotes:
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject.
I do hate having such peculiar opinions because either I must keep them bottled up or else people are horrified at my skepticism, which is as bad with people one cares for as remaining bottled up.
The fact is, Americans are unspeakably lazy about everything but their business: to cover their laziness, they invent a pessimism, and say things can’t be improved.
The loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of the sort of love that religious teachers have preached; whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful, or at best useless; it follows that war is wrong, that a public school education is abominable, that the use of force is to be deprecated, and that in human relations one should penetrate to the core of loneliness in each person and speak to that.
Each of us is an Atlas to the world of his own ideals, and the poet, more than anyone else, lightens the burden for weary shoulders.
Writing is the outlet to feelings which are all but overmastering, and are yet mastered.
The continuity of life, the weight of tradition, the great eternal procession of youth and age and death, seem to be lost in the bustling approach of the future which dominates American life.
If one wants uncommon experiences, a little renunciation, a little performance of duty, will give one far more unusual sensations than all the fine free passion in the universe.
People can tell one nothing more interesting than their own feeling towards life.
The facing of the world alone, without one’s familiar refuge, is the beginning of wisdom and courage.
The world is too serious a place, at times, for the barriers of reserve and good manners.
When I see people who desire money or fame or power, I find it hard to imagine what must be the emotional emptiness of their lives, that can leave room for such trivial things.
Human comradeship seems to grow more intimate and more tender from the sense that we are all exiles on an inhospitable shore.
February 25, 2015
As literature, this doesn't rate high on my list. As slightly amusing history, it was OK. I found some of his early chapters about his youth kind of entertaining. I am always amused by people who call themselves socialists (and yes, I know its a slightly different meaning a hundred years ago), while they live on their trust funds on their uncle Lord so and so's estate. Not that I would turn down that life of leisure if it was presented to me. I'm vastly more jealous than offended. Interesting snapshot of upperclass life at that time. Does that still exist for anyone? I doubt it. Can't really recommend, certainly not a page turner.
October 11, 2015
An extremely funny book. Can't wait for the next volume!
March 8, 2017
I’ve long been in awe of some of Russell’s writing, and was intrigued to hear this book recommended in an excellent course on Victorian England: I had not thought of Russell as a Victorian, although his childhood certainly fell in that period. I am enjoying working my way through these volumes as much as I had hoped from the tidbits mentioned in the course… and its recommendation of Eminent Victorians, along with Russell’s own in this volume, have led me on a side trip to devour that.
Read
November 27, 2017No se como puntuar esta autobiografía, las partes narrativas son mayormente interesantes (Russell es muy sincero y algo desordenado), pero intercala gran cantidad de correspondencia enviada o recibida en bloques que rompen la narración y a mí me distraen. Algunas cartas me resultan interesantes pero la mayoría no...Es posible que este no fuera el libro adecuado en este momento para mi.
April 1, 2013
B. Russell is a sassy man but most unfortunately a huge portion of this is simply letters. While interesting at first, it became dreadfully dull
April 23, 2013
vol 1. Outstanding and poetic too.
June 7, 2025
I enjoyed this book immensely! I started it a bit on a whim—I ended up grabbing this book from one of my many book piles quite spontaneously to bring to school as my “back-up book” in case I finished the other book I was reading (which I did, and thus I was given the chance to start this)—but was drawn deeply into it very quickly. I was never bored, and I found the prose-style extremely engaging, eloquent, loquacious, and beautiful. Russell was, at turns, lucid, witty, intelligent, insightful, humorous, snobby, and ridiculous. He put to words some things I’d thought vaguely of but never been able to clarify. It was fascinating to read his development from a small child to an adult and his evolving philosophy—also, his relationships with various intellectuals, some still quite renowned names today, such as Rabindranath Tagore, Joseph Conrad, and William James. I only wish there was a Part II, as I feel this ended a bit abruptly, and I want to know more about Russell’s life! On second thought, maybe this is only the first part? I’ll have to look into it. Update: Yes, it seems this is only the first of three parts!!! I definitely will be reading the next two volumes!!!
December 8, 2025
Autobiographie I: 1872–1914
Dieser erste Band führt in die scheinbar fest gefügte viktorianische und edwardianische Welt ein, die Russell als intellektuelles Wunderkind kurz vor der kollektiven Selbstzerstörung Europas erlebte. In seinem Umfeld begegnen sich prominente Politiker, die bedeutendsten Philosophen der Zeit und eine Vielzahl exzentrischer Verwandter – eine eigentümliche Mischung aus britischer Hochintelligenz und skurrilem Adel, der das Drama im privaten Salon kultivierte. Entstanden ist eine ebenso faszinierende wie melancholische Lebenschronik, die im Jahr 1914 abrupt endet: genau dort, wo die „sichere und faszinierende Gesellschaft“ der Vernunft dem Ersten Weltkrieg unterlag.
Dieser erste Band führt in die scheinbar fest gefügte viktorianische und edwardianische Welt ein, die Russell als intellektuelles Wunderkind kurz vor der kollektiven Selbstzerstörung Europas erlebte. In seinem Umfeld begegnen sich prominente Politiker, die bedeutendsten Philosophen der Zeit und eine Vielzahl exzentrischer Verwandter – eine eigentümliche Mischung aus britischer Hochintelligenz und skurrilem Adel, der das Drama im privaten Salon kultivierte. Entstanden ist eine ebenso faszinierende wie melancholische Lebenschronik, die im Jahr 1914 abrupt endet: genau dort, wo die „sichere und faszinierende Gesellschaft“ der Vernunft dem Ersten Weltkrieg unterlag.
June 14, 2023
Interesting but, I think, limited, and made difficult by the passing of time. It focuses on relationships rather than intellectual development - although there is enough of this to be worthwhile - and many of the people he knew are no longer sufficiently well remembered to make reading this without constant reference to other sources a bit meaningless. Also, he includes selections of letters, sometimes to and from people not otherwise mentioned in the book. Who, for example, was Lucy Martin Donnelly? Google reveals that she was head of English at Bryn Mawr, but he expects us to know this so, apart from the correspondence, she isn't mentioned in the text.
January 6, 2023
It's 3 1/2 rather than 3...or 4.
The reason it's not more is that 'autobiography' must here be understood in its specific context: Russell tells you very little about personal things, or rather, he keeps a lot unsaid. Fair enough, really, he's left a lot of writings that you can read for that perhaps. So this is both frustrating at times, and wonderfully interesting at others...
The reason it's not more is that 'autobiography' must here be understood in its specific context: Russell tells you very little about personal things, or rather, he keeps a lot unsaid. Fair enough, really, he's left a lot of writings that you can read for that perhaps. So this is both frustrating at times, and wonderfully interesting at others...
January 29, 2024
Keen intelligence, honesty, wisdom and occasional flashes of wit combine to render this not-too-dramatic life story somewhat lively and mildly enjoyable. Russell's first person narrative is, alas, interspersed with letter after letter, each of which is more boring and irrelevant than the last. I started skipping over them halfway through and hereby give you permission to ignore them entirely.
December 11, 2020
Meh. I love Russell’s philosophy but this felt rather haphazard and didn’t really dig into anything. I didn’t even find the copious letters (which were not placed in any sort of order or context) to be all that interesting.
August 5, 2024
THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE RENOWNED PHILOSOPHER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and social critic, who also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950; the other volumes of his autobiography are 'The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell: 1914-1944' and 'The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1944-1969.'
He began this 1951 book with the statement, "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind... I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy... [and] because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined." (Pg. 3)
He recalls that as his older brother was tutoring him in Euclid, Russell was "disappointed that he started with axioms. At first I refused to accept them unless my brother could offer me some reason for doing so, but he said, 'If you don't accept them we cannot go on,' and as I wished to go on, I reluctantly admitted them pro tem. The doubt as to the premises of mathematics which I felt at that moment remained with me, and determined the course of my mathematical work." (Pg. 40)
He observes, "The [1900 International Congress of Philosophy] Congress was a turning point in my intellectual life, because I there met Peano... in the space of a few weeks, I discovered what appeared to be definitive answer to the problems which had baffled me for years... I was introducing a new mathematical technique, by which regions formerly abandoned to the vagueness of philosophers were conquered for the precision of exact formulae. Intellectually, the month of September 1900 was the highest point of my life." (Pg. 232-233)
Interestingly, he records what can only be described as a mystical experience he had in 1901: "Suddenly the ground seemed to give way beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some such reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of the sort of love that religious teachers have preached; whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful, or at best useless... At the end of those five minutes, I had become a completely different person. For a time, a sort of mystic illumination possessed me... The mystic insight which I then imagined myself to possess has largely faded... But something of what I thought I saw in that moment has remained always with me..." (Pg. 234-235)
He admits, "The strain of unhappiness combined with very severe intellectual work, in the years from 1902 to 1910, was very great. At the time I wondered whether I should ever come out at the other end of the tunnel in which I seemed to be... in the end the work was finished, but my intellect never quite recovered from the strain. I have been ever since definitely less capable of dealing with difficult abstractions than I was before. This is part, though by no means the whole, of the reason for the change in the nature of my work." (Pg. 244-245)
He wrote (perhaps surprisingly, to some readers) to Gilbert Murray on December 12, 1902, "From heaven we may return to our fellow-creatures, not try to make our heaven here among them; we ought to love our neighbor through the love of God, or else our love is too mundane. At least so it seems to me. But the coldness of my own doctrine is repellent to me; except at moments when the love of God glows brightly." (Pg. 260)
Russell was one of the greatest intellectuals and public figures of the 20th century; his story is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, mathematics, politics, and modern history.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and social critic, who also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950; the other volumes of his autobiography are 'The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell: 1914-1944' and 'The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1944-1969.'
He began this 1951 book with the statement, "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind... I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy... [and] because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined." (Pg. 3)
He recalls that as his older brother was tutoring him in Euclid, Russell was "disappointed that he started with axioms. At first I refused to accept them unless my brother could offer me some reason for doing so, but he said, 'If you don't accept them we cannot go on,' and as I wished to go on, I reluctantly admitted them pro tem. The doubt as to the premises of mathematics which I felt at that moment remained with me, and determined the course of my mathematical work." (Pg. 40)
He observes, "The [1900 International Congress of Philosophy] Congress was a turning point in my intellectual life, because I there met Peano... in the space of a few weeks, I discovered what appeared to be definitive answer to the problems which had baffled me for years... I was introducing a new mathematical technique, by which regions formerly abandoned to the vagueness of philosophers were conquered for the precision of exact formulae. Intellectually, the month of September 1900 was the highest point of my life." (Pg. 232-233)
Interestingly, he records what can only be described as a mystical experience he had in 1901: "Suddenly the ground seemed to give way beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some such reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of the sort of love that religious teachers have preached; whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful, or at best useless... At the end of those five minutes, I had become a completely different person. For a time, a sort of mystic illumination possessed me... The mystic insight which I then imagined myself to possess has largely faded... But something of what I thought I saw in that moment has remained always with me..." (Pg. 234-235)
He admits, "The strain of unhappiness combined with very severe intellectual work, in the years from 1902 to 1910, was very great. At the time I wondered whether I should ever come out at the other end of the tunnel in which I seemed to be... in the end the work was finished, but my intellect never quite recovered from the strain. I have been ever since definitely less capable of dealing with difficult abstractions than I was before. This is part, though by no means the whole, of the reason for the change in the nature of my work." (Pg. 244-245)
He wrote (perhaps surprisingly, to some readers) to Gilbert Murray on December 12, 1902, "From heaven we may return to our fellow-creatures, not try to make our heaven here among them; we ought to love our neighbor through the love of God, or else our love is too mundane. At least so it seems to me. But the coldness of my own doctrine is repellent to me; except at moments when the love of God glows brightly." (Pg. 260)
Russell was one of the greatest intellectuals and public figures of the 20th century; his story is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, mathematics, politics, and modern history.
May 18, 2024
A remarkable philosopher and nobleman. He is quite frank about his youth and the events that led up to his protest of the Great War.
July 3, 2020
Russell’s lucid style seen in his non-fiction theses is seen in his autobiography as well. It is a life worth knowing. The guy knew Einstein, Cantor, Conrad, William James, Santayana, TS Eliot, DH Lawrence, HG Wells, GB Shaw, Norbert Weiner, John Maynard Keynes on a first name basis. His autobiography has to be interesting. The section with the letters was a bit dull but every now and then you see some of Russell’s letters and the quotes in there are absolutely riveting and were worth waiting for. Here are a few favorites:
Human nature, at least my nature, is invariably optimistic in regard to itself.
It is the great reward of losing youth that one finds oneself able to be of use.
(To others).
When I see people who desire money or fame or power, I find it hard to imagine what must be the emotional emptiness of their lives, that can leave room for such trivial things.
Sunshine is very agreeable, but fogs and mists have effects which sunshine can never attain to.
Religion and art both, it seems to me, are attempts to humanize the universe.
The splendour of human life, I feel sure, is greater to those who are not dazzled by the divine radiance; and human comradeship seems to grow more intimate and more tender from the sense that we are all exiles on an inhospitable shore.
To know people well is to know their tragedy: it is usually the central thing about which their lives are built. And I suppose if they did not live most of the time in the things of the moment, they would not be able to go on.
But although I do not think philosophy itself will give anything of human interest, I think a philosophical training enables one to get richer experiences, and to make more use of those that one does get.
Human nature, at least my nature, is invariably optimistic in regard to itself.
It is the great reward of losing youth that one finds oneself able to be of use.
(To others).
When I see people who desire money or fame or power, I find it hard to imagine what must be the emotional emptiness of their lives, that can leave room for such trivial things.
Sunshine is very agreeable, but fogs and mists have effects which sunshine can never attain to.
Religion and art both, it seems to me, are attempts to humanize the universe.
The splendour of human life, I feel sure, is greater to those who are not dazzled by the divine radiance; and human comradeship seems to grow more intimate and more tender from the sense that we are all exiles on an inhospitable shore.
To know people well is to know their tragedy: it is usually the central thing about which their lives are built. And I suppose if they did not live most of the time in the things of the moment, they would not be able to go on.
But although I do not think philosophy itself will give anything of human interest, I think a philosophical training enables one to get richer experiences, and to make more use of those that one does get.
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