A Message to the Future

Intelligence, Patience, Eloquence

A Message to the Future (1969) — Intelligence, Patience, Eloquence

“Neither misery nor folly seems to me any part of the inevitable lot of man. And I am convinced that intelligence, patience, and eloquence can, sooner or later, lead the human race out of its self-imposed tortures provided it does not exterminate itself meanwhile. I may have thought the road to a world of free and happy human beings shorter than it is proving to be, but I was not wrong in thinking that such a world is possible, and that it is worth while to live with a view to bringing it nearer. I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.“

— Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967–1969), Volume III: Postscript, p. 890. Published separately as 'Reflections on my Eightieth Birthday' in Portraits from Memory.

Image: Bertrand Russell in his private study at his home in Penrhyndeudreath, Gwynedd, United Kingdom (1954).