151 Quotes by Julian Baggini

Religion will recede not by atheists shouting condemnation, but by the quiet voice of reason slowly making itself heard.

Rhetoric is simply the use of language to persuade, and it can be used to persuade us of falsehoods as well as truths.

If we pretend or imagine that life's purpose lies outside living itself, we will be searching the stars for what is underneath our feet all the time.

God replies that all it really proves is "that some men will follow any order no matter how asinine as long as it comes from a resonant, well-modulated voice.

Our desire to preserve is a form of denial about our own mortality. The fact that art can indure longer than people has lead some to seek a form of proxy-immortality through it. If we accept that art is mortal too, and that nothing is truly permanent, maybe we can see more clearly where the value of art and life is to be fount - in experiencing them.

Constructive complaint requires only two things: that what you are complaining about should be different, and that it can be different. It sounds simple, but too often our protests fail this test.

Big sporting events and spectacles might give the national morale a shot in the arm, but they are too transient and taste-specific to stand as robust symbols of nationhood.

Happiness is not the same as life satisfaction, while neither are identical to what we might call flourishing.

Stress means something different if it is the result of rewarding work rather than struggling to keep the family out of debt.