Bertrand Russell style

Bertrand Russell came up with some deliciously arrogant one-liners to go along with the three-pieces:

"Many people would sooner die than think; in fact they often do"

"To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the hallmark of civilisation, and at present very few people have reached this level"

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous collapse is the belief that one's work is important"

Brilliant, heavy weight cloths; it looks as if he he'd been wearing those suits for yonks, which he probably had....

Frog in Suit

Very professorial academic style...


Russell Kirk liked the 3-piece as well.

Great Pics and Quotes

Pre-war sartorial conformity granted, I still don't think he actually looks that good...

He may have lost weight between the bespeaking of the suits and the time when he was photographed.

Frog in Suit

Fantastic thread...best in weeks.


- B

I love it. A Leftist from the aristocracy
with a Nobel Prize to boot. However,
he does look a bit like a dessicated old
Toff.

good at math and logic. horrible philosopher. meh dresser.

...but how do you really feel about him?

Leftist? IIRC he suggested Moscow be nuked after WWII. He was no fan of Stalin's, and I think he disliked Communism in general.

Russell was an authoritarian aristocrat, happily looking down on the Communists, the USA, the UK government, religion/God, the general public and basically anyone other than himself.

He'd only have been really happy with a single world-government with him at the head of it, crushing any outbreak of individuality in the plebian class ruthlessly in the name of peace, while busily working on the purification of the human race and claiming to be an impartial observer and commentator on events. He is one of the most wonderfully arrogant writers there is, and makes for charming reading because of that.

There's a lot of arrogance in his works, between the lines and sometimes "in your face", but your statement is grossly exaggerated. And his views on the US are at least ambiguous, he was a proponent of an (sort of) American lead world "government" after WWII.

I would still characterize him as a man of the Left, certainly in the
context of Post War politics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertran...litical_causes