 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Take, for example, the teaching of history. Each nation aims only at self-glorification in the school textbooks of history. When a man writes his autobiography, he is expected to show a certain modesty, but when a nation writes its autobiography, there is no limit to its boasting and vainglory.
When I was young, schoolbooks taught that the French were wicked and the Germans virtuous; now they teach the opposite.
In neither case is there the slightest regard for truth.
Source: Free thought and official propaganda, delivered at South Place Institute on March 24,1922.
Reprinted in: Sceptical Essays, 1928, p.154
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