Q0348

Bertrand Russell

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

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.
Thinker Bertrand Russell
School Analytic philosophy
Source Autobiography, Prologue
Theme Love
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Autobiography, Prologue, 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 love, 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.). 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. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0348

MLA: Bertrand Russell. “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0348.

Chicago: Bertrand Russell. “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0348.

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 love

  1. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  2. A friend is another self.
  3. If you wish to be loved, love.
  4. Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
  5. Compassion is the basis of morality.

Browse the love theme