 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
I do not mean by "reason" any faculty of determining the ends of life. The ends which a man will pursue are determined by his desires; but he may pursue them wisely or unwisely. We may assume that the kaiser hoped to increase his power by the war, and that the czar hoped to avert revolution; neither of them showed wisdom in the choice of means to these ends. When I speak of "reason," I mean merely the endeavor to find out the truth about any matter with which we are concerned, as opposed to the endeavor to prove to ourselves that what we desire is true.
Source: The Prospects of Industrial Civilization, 1922, chapter X: The Source of Power
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