“I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race—I am ashamed to belong to such a species.”

Welsh mathematician and philosopher

Bertrand Russell was a Welsh mathematician and philosopher, and a founder of analytic philosophy. He became one of the leading philosophers of the 20th century, known for work in logic, set theory, and the philosophy of language. He also helped bring philosophy to a wider public through his books and commentary. Outside academic philosophy, he was widely known for his outspoken atheism, pacifism, and opposition to nuclear weapons, and he often wrote on social and political questions.