Your Morning Bertrand
For Wednesday, May 14th, 2025
Week 114 of our regular morning feature here at Friedman of the Plains Worldwide in which we highlight the great words and works of great men and women, as well as those who are insufferable, delusional, and even fictional.
This Week Bertrand Russell
“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” — Why Men Fight
Fear of thought is why we are in our current perilous place.
The first Shakespeare play I read was Julius Caesar in sophomore year of high school. I still recall Caesar's line: "Let me have men around me who are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep a nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous."