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, "Reflections on My Eightieth Birthday"

I like this distinction, below:

"Bertrand Russell would not have wished to be called a saint of any description; but he was a great and good man."
— A.J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, NY: Viking Press, 1972.

(Also from Wikipedia.)

It is the difference between great and good that interests me. Because time & again history seems to prove that great works can be carried out by bad people, and good people can fall short of achieving greatness. (I offer this without any attempt to define 'great' & 'good'. I am going on instinct, & I suspect many people will know, in their guts or their hearts, what I mean.)