• Russell doesn't understand the importance of the past, or of tradition, and—he won't qualify.
• Bertie says that I am muddle headed, but I say that he is simple minded.
• Russell is a Platonic dialogue in himself.
• Alfred North Whitehead, as quoted in Bertrand Russell's Theory of Knowledge (Routledge, 2013), 'Conclusion', p. 222
  • A gentle, even shy man, Russell was delightful as a conversationalist, companion and friend. He was capable of a pyrotechnical display of wit, erudition and curiosity, and he bubbled with anecdotes about the world's greats.
• It is impossible to describe Bertrand Russell except by saying that he looks like the Mad Hatter.
• Russell's books should be bound in two colours, those dealing with mathematical logic in red – and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and politics in blue – and no one should be allowed to read them.
• This is the great paradox of Russell. All his instincts were on the side of the "rationalists"; his greatest hatred was for those who exalted emotion, or any sort of mystic intuition, at the expense of reason. But because Russell was the greatest rationalist of all, he had to admit that reason cannot prove the mystics wrong. In fact, in some private moods he was a mystic himself.

### Language ###
English

### Assessment ###
Finding out about Russell's personality traits in social situations

### Query ###
Tell me what Bertrand Russell was like as a conversation partner
Tell me what Bertrand Russell was like as a conversation partner