An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish Quotes

Context

This quote is taken from the philosophical book An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish, published by Bertrand Russell in 1943.

This quote comes from the middle of a pamphlet by Bertrand Russell, and you can probably tell what his tone is when you see the full title of the piece, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: a hilarious catalogue of organized and individual stupidity. In other words, Russell uses this short piece to go on a rant about how stupid people can be, especially when they get together in groups and tempers run high.

For him, people are at their most stupid when they're arguing about something that can never be proven. And if you pay attention to the stuff people argue about, you'll start noticing just how true this is.

Where you've heard it

You probably haven't heard this quote in any movies or popular songs, because let's face it, the thing just isn't very catchy. But chances are you've heard some version of it on TV, especially when there are elections coming up and the politicians keep arguing about issues that are based on personal philosophies and not evidence. That's the sort of thing Russell means when he says that our most bitter controversies come from things we can never prove, one way or the other. And all these years later, it looks like he's still spot on.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

As with many old-school philosophy quotes, you can probably get away with this one as long as you just give people the gist of it. If you plan on quoting it word for word and sourcing it, we can't make any guarantees about the response… or about your safety.