When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe, but look only and surely at what are the facts.
Interpretation
Focus on the facts and the objective truth rather than personal beliefs or desires.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell emphasizes the importance of adhering to objective truths and facts when engaging with any matter or philosophical thought. He warns against being swayed by one's own wishes or beliefs, encouraging a mindset of critical analysis where facts and rationality guide our understanding rather than subjective preferences.
In practice
This quote can be used in a classroom setting when discussing the importance of critical thinking.
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.
No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty of a crime by a court.
Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.
The fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings.
The White man pays Reverend Martin Luther King so that Martin Luther King can keep the Negro defenseless.
The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.
A prediction, in a field where prediction is not possible, is no more than a prejudice.
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