Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I am only me for practical purposes.
Indeed, without emotion it seems unlikely we can even have morality.
Justice can only be dispensed when you have all the facts in front of you.
Morality is more than possible without God, it is entirely independent of him.
Being virtuous is wonderful thing, but feeling virtuous is a shortcut to vice.
Atheists should point out that life without God can be meaningful, moral and happy.
Right and wrong are not simply matters of evolutionary impacts and what is natural.
Love is indeed at root the product of the firings of neurons and release of hormones.
Love is indeed, at root, the product of the firings of neurons and release of hormones.
Society needs both justice and compassion, a head and a heart, if it is to be civilised.
We do wrong willfully when we fail to think hard about whether what we're doing is right.
As a teenager, I increasingly had questions about religion to which I found no good answers.
Being a good neighbour is about compassion, which is as warm-blooded as justice is cool-headed.
There is such a thing as fanaticism, it is always wrong, and if you disagree, you're wrong too.
No one has ever understood anything better by assuming that there is no reason for why it is the way it is.
I don't think anyone who genuinely embraced sincerity, charity and modesty could be intolerant or divisive.
Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.
There are many things you shouldn't measure. Don't, for example, try to measure how much you love your wife!
The greatest moral failing is to condemn something as a moral failing: no vice is worse than being judgmental.
Happiness is not the same as life satisfaction, while neither are identical to what we might call flourishing.
Life is full of what-ifs, many of which could easily have been realities, had just a few things been different.
You don't choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.
It's not leftovers that are wasteful, but those who either don't know what to do with them or can't be bothered.
Since Plato, we have been considering the nature of knowledge, the meaning of meaning and the status of the physical world.
Any celebration meal to which guests are invited, be they family or friends, should be an occasion for generous hospitality.
It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim "never say never" is one of the most important in ethics.
It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim 'never say never' is one of the most important in ethics.
Stress means something different if it is the result of rewarding work rather than struggling to keep the family out of debt.
It is true that legality is not morality, and sticking to the law is necessary for good citizenship, but it is not sufficient.
'That which does not kill me makes me stronger' is not a law of the universe. What it can be, if we so choose, is a resolution.
"That which does not kill me makes me stronger" is not a law of the universe. What it can be, if we so choose, is a resolution.
Wellbeing is a notion that entails our values about the good life, and questions of values are not ultimately scientific questions.
If we now find ourselves looking down on the cheap and convenient, it is only because we now have better things which are affordable.
If philosophy is to be a valuable part of life, we have to appreciate it for its own sake, and not just for what it's done for us lately.
The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.
Seek first what is true and of value, and then whatever happiness follows will be of the appropriate quantity and, more importantly, quality.
The truly humble feel the ground beneath their feet every day and do not only become aware of it when held aloft or pushed down to their knees.
Accepting that the world is full of uncertainty and ambiguity does not and should not stop people from being pretty sure about a lot of things.
No one who has understood even a fraction of what science has told us about the universe can fail to be in awe of both the cosmos and of science.
Instead of showing strangers kindness and giving them the benefit of the doubt, we increasingly show them only fear, and that is bad for us and them.
From time to time, it is worth wandering around the fuzzy border regions of what you do, if only to remind yourself that no human activity is an island.
Waiting is so unusual that many of us can't stand in a queue for 30 seconds without getting out our phones to check for messages or to Google something.
Nature deals the cards without thought or care, and there is no point in blaming the dealer. All we can do is make the best of the hands we have been dealt.
People should not expect the state to protect them from fraudsters. If we do, we get into the habit of neglecting our own powers of intellectual discernment.
I don't feel proprietorial about the problems of philosophy. History has taught us that many philosophical issues can grow up, leave home and live elsewhere.
If you believe you are right, then you should believe that you can make the case that you're right. This requires you to deal with serious objections properly.
The only good reason to embrace a philosophical position is that you are convinced it is true or at least makes sense of the world better than the alternatives.
To become a stoic is to endorse the truthfulness of its world view and accept its prescription for how you ought to live, not just to like how it makes you feel.
Progress is more of a challenge for the cynic but also more important and urgent, since for the optimist things aren't that bad and are bound to get better anyway.
On social networking sites, we may expose ourselves, but we choose to do so. We are in control and, often wrongly, we do not feel we are giving away tradable data.