Q0452

Bertrand Russell

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy… can still do.
Thinker Bertrand Russell
School Analytic Philosophy
Source A History of Western Philosophy, Introduction
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with A History of Western Philosophy, Introduction, 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 knowledge, 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.). To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy… can still do. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0452

MLA: Bertrand Russell. “To teach how to live without certainty, and….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0452.

Chicago: Bertrand Russell. “To teach how to live without certainty, and….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0452.

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 knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme