Q0272

Bertrand Russell

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.
Thinker Bertrand Russell
School Analytic Philosophy
Source Why I Am Not a Christian (related)
Theme Fear
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Why I Am Not a Christian (related), within the tradition of Analytic Philosophy. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of fear, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Bertrand Russell's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Bertrand Russell. (n.d.). Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0272

MLA: Bertrand Russell. “Fear is the main source of superstition, and….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0272.

Chicago: Bertrand Russell. “Fear is the main source of superstition, and….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0272.

Same thinker

More from Bertrand Russell

  1. The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions…be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
  2. To abandon the struggle for private happiness…to burn with passion for eternal things — this is emancipation.
  3. Next to worry, probably one of the most potent causes of unhappiness is envy.
  4. Envy is itself a terrible obstacle to happiness.
  5. Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

All quotations by Bertrand Russell

Same theme

More on fear

  1. There are more things that frighten us than crush us, and we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
  2. Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
  3. When human life lay foully for all to see, crushed to the earth under heavy religion…
  4. The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
  5. the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short

Browse the fear theme