The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.
Interpretation
This quote distinguishes between two personality types: the megalomaniac, who craves power and fear, and the narcissist, who seeks charm and love.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell explores the fundamental differences between megalomania and narcissism. While a narcissist is primarily focused on being admired and loved by others, a megalomaniac pursues dominance and is more concerned with instilling fear and asserting authority. Russell suggests that this desire for power over love can lead individuals to commit extreme acts, and he points out that many influential historical figures exhibited such megalomaniacal traits, which often blur the lines between genius and madness.
In practice
In a discussion about leadership styles, this quote can highlight the dangers of power-driven individuals.
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.
When I see someone like Richard Dawkins, I see my father. I grew up with that. I'm basically the child of Richard Dawkins.
However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United Nations Human Rights Declaration, such a Declaration becomes superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.
Reflection is only a partial understanding of truth if it does not translate itself in practice into commitments to the common good and justice. Truth is not mere abstraction but something to be done and is only apprehended when this is realized.
I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.
Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution.
At one point, I thought life was about acquiring things. But as a I get older, life is totally about losing everything.
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