Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

Bertrand Russell

About Bertrand Russell

Portrait of Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic philosophy.He was one of the early 20th century's prominent logicians and a founder of analytic...

More quotations from Bertrand Russell

More quotations tagged with “teaching”