Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.
Interpretation
Science may initially feel uncomfortable compared to traditional beliefs, but ultimately it invigorates and reveals a profound beauty in understanding.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell reflects on the discomfort that often accompanies the introduction of scientific reasoning in place of cherished myths and traditions. He suggests that while the 'cold air' of scientific inquiry can momentarily unsettle us, it ultimately leads to a more vigorous, expansive understanding of the world, bringing with it a new kind of beauty and splendor that enriches human experience.
In practice
In a lecture on the importance of scientific literacy, one might quote this to emphasize the value of embracing new knowledge.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Our best built certainties are but sand-houses and subject to damage from any wind of doubt that blows
It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.
Our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws, so far as we can read them.
Lord, catch me off guard today. Surprise me with some moment of beauty or pain so that at least for the moment, I may be startled into seeing that you are here in all your splendor, always and everywhere, barely hidden, beneath, beyond, within this life I breathe.
Our permanent address is tommorrow.
I was sure that somewhere a grandiose carnival was going on in the sky, and I was missing it.
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