Slightly More Russell . . .

Another quotation from Bertrand Russell—one that sums up what it is that I was trying to say in the last posting and in some of the previous postings on the dangers of relying purely on theory and abstract thought. The italics at the end of it are mine:

‘In my second marriage, I had tried to preserve that respect for my wife’s liberty which I thought that my creed enjoined. I found, however, that my capacity for forgiveness and what may be called Christian love was not equal to the demands that I was making on it, and that persistence in a hopeless endeavour would do much harm to me, while not achieving the intended good to others. Anybody else could have told me this in advance, but I was blinded by theory.’