Adding the rest:
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.”
Bertrand Russell, a modern philosopher, a wise man most would agree.
I am moved by these suggestions listed in his Decalogue. Thanks to the source blog.Wisdom – there is not a lot of it about!
Related articles
- Bertrand Russell on Plato and Aristotle (tigerpapers.wordpress.com)
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- Three Passions of Bertrand Russell (and a Collection of Free Texts) (downes.ca)
A LIBERAL DECALOGUE
By Bertrand Russell
Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not…
View original post 109 more words
The GOLDEN RULE 
Ah, for the old days when the label “liberal” actually meant something other than “socialist”! It is sad that we do not have more Bertrand Russells today. Of course, back in his hey-day, “conservative” also meant something different, something other than “fascist.”
How surreal that what is today presented as a battle between liberal and conservative is in actuality a joint performance of socialists and fascists marching arm in arm, backward toward the Dark Ages!
Thank God for digital information technology and the Internet, our best defense against the barbarians.
Greeting from over the ocean. informative article I shall return for more.
Jason Calley said: ” Thank God for digital information technology and the Internet, our best defense against the barbarians.”
Actually that should read “Thank Man for…”, because it’s pretty well documented that humans created digital information technology and the internet.
Fair comment, but it’s reasonably normal practice to use “Thank God” as a sort of figure of speech. Not always of course, but often.
I am comfortable with the term, even in its literal sense, as I believe that it is difficult and naive to categorically state that there is no God.
Interesting that I once was inclined to scoff at the saying of ‘Grace’ before meals ‘thanking God for what we are about to eat’. However, again I am comfortable with this as, although the ‘host’ is responsible for the meal, the whole aspect of nature, environment, the growing of food and our very existence is very possibly involving a spiritual element.
To pay tribute to the very real existence of those present and of our lives and means of sustenance, regardless of the creation element, is to show respect for life itself.