151 Quotes by Julian Baggini

It’s not leftovers that are wasteful, but those who either don’t know what to do with them or can’t be bothered.

You don’t choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.

I don’t think anyone who genuinely embraced sincerity, charity and modesty could be intolerant or divisive.

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.

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.

This line of reasoning would seem to lead to the absurd conclusion that the world is filled with noises no one hears, colours no one sees, flavours no one tastes, textures no one feels, as well as a host of other sense experience we cannot even imagine. For there is no end in which creatures might possibly perceive the world.

Dover’s cliffs call to mind the Roman invasion; the Battle of Britain; our proximity to, yet difference from, mainland Europe; and international trade and exploration, both fair and exploitative.

We all have to make some basic assumptions that we cannot afford to doubt. Belief in our very sanity is in some sense a leap of faith.

The point of seeing both sides isn’t to hover between them but to be able to come down on the right side with the right degree of conviction.