Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I enjoy intellectual companionship.
I don't waste time despising people.
I listen to music. I particularly love Mozart.
Philanthropy can have a very strong selfish component.
I think that Muslims are criticised all around the world.
I wouldn't express anything without being very thoughtful.
It's always been intriguing to me, the loveability of mortality.
Mob rule is always extremely dangerous for the future of democracy.
It's always easier for people to face backward than to face forward.
I can run a long distance very slowly and I do a half marathon every year.
Well, I'm trained as a classicist, so I like to read the Greeks and Romans.
At first I imagined I'd write detective novels, because I loved 'Nancy Drew.'
I think that it's rational to fear your own death or to fear harm to your family.
Fear requires belief that you will be harmed, and it is easily manipulated by rhetoric.
Emotions aren't just mindless urges; they contain thoughts about matters of importance.
We have fear as soon as we are born, we are born into a state of physical helplessness.
I think a lot of people get hope through civic organizations and through their churches.
In my experience and observation, senior appointments are rarely based entirely on merit.
I am not a pacifist - I think that violence and self-defence are often morally justified.
It's a form of human love to accept our complicated, messy humanity and not run away from it.
In my case, I give a lot to animal welfare because I think that's pretty neglected in America.
Disgust for the female body is always tinged with anxiety, since the body symbolizes mortality.
I love fashion, and I simply enjoy good design in clothes and regard that as one of my hobbies.
I wish a person with a record of competence such as Nitish Kumar would get a chance to lead India.
We see unreasoning fear driving a certain amount of public policy, perhaps more in Europe than in the U.S.
It is easier to treat people as objects to be manipulated if you have never learned any other way to see them.
Knowledge is not a guarantee of good political behavior, but ignorance is a virtual guarantee of bad behavior.
The imagination is an innate gift, but it needs refinement and cultivation; this is what the humanities provide.
People - and I think this is particularly true of Americans - don't like to be passive. They like to seize control.
If you look into the religions, they have this deep idea of human dignity and the source of dignity being conscience.
Disgust is often more deeply buried than envy and anger, but it compounds and intensifies the other negative emotions.
All of us, whether we are ignorant of philosophy or professors of philosophy, find it easier to follow dogma than to think.
Every time I undress in the locker room of my gym, I see women bearing the scars of liposuction, tummy tucks, breast implants.
I really disliked Philadelphia society - really, deeply disliked it. I spent a lot of my teenage years writing poetry attacking it.
Men in particular think that they have achieved something if they can make a woman mad, particularly if she is calm and intellectual.
Most Americans do really think that Muslims all want to take over and they don't want democracy and they want nothing but Islamic law.
In general, I agree with Socrates that what democracies badly need is the examined life, and we need to think critically about ourselves.
I think Americans did learn that you just are not going to be able to live well if you subordinate people on the grounds of their religion.
Politicians are at a great distance from the academic world. Barack Obama was my colleague at Chicago - but could i ever talk to him now? Never.
When we have emotions of fear and pity toward the hero of a tragedy, we explore aspects of our own vulnerability in a safe and pleasing setting.
I'm very upset that the Supreme Court ruled that citizens don't have standing to challenge the faith based initiatives on constitutional grounds.
Teaching has always been a very important part of my life. It is one of the ways I contribute to society. It is also a source of energy and insight.
To be sure Plato did not favor 'affirmative action' to fill political and military offices in his own society; nor did he enroll women in his school.
Martin Luther King and Gandhi were not people who failed in self-respect. They were people of hope and great courage, and their courage was disciplined.
You can't have a democracy when people don't learn to put themselves in the shoes of another person, who can't think what their policies mean for others.
I worked among many famous philosophers, and I tried to observe how they treated students. I knew which ones I wanted to be like, and which ones I didn't.
There were several men who had blazed the trail for talking about emotions in philosophy; otherwise my work would have had even more opposition than it did.
Often, we feel helpless in lots of situations in our lives. The way anger gets a grip on us is it seems to be a way to extricate ourselves from helplessness.
Among the good and decent men, some are unprepared for the surprises of life, and their good intentions run aground when confronted with issues like child care.
What all emotions have in common, and what distinguishes them from bodily appetites, is a focus on an object and a view of that object as salient for one's life.