Bertrand Russell

Human existence

July 22, 2022

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

~ Bertrand Russel

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How to grow old

August 20, 2018

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

~ Bertrand Russell from, How to Grow Old: Bertrand Russell on What Makes a Fulfilling Life – The Marginalian

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I’m certain I have nothing to add to that. If that doesn’t make you the least bit wistful, then I’ll wager you are young.

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Fools and fanatics versus the wise

January 14, 2012

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

~ Bertrand Russell

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This seemed to be trite commentary until I realized that one could also read it to be actionable instructions: The key to solving big, real world, problems is figuring out when one is being the fool/fanatic versus the wise.

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