Daniel Dennett Quotes

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility.

I try and be truthful.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

You can't do without philosophy, since everything has its hidden meaning which we must know.

It's okay to lie as long as you reach a higher truth doing it.

I just have an inability to lie.

We must never throw away a bushel of truth because it happens to contain a few grains of chaff.

Socrates was executed … not for his megalomania or grandiose propositions or certitudes, but for stubbornly doubting the absolute truths of others.

Never act in breach of trust ., Live morally, do not aspire for other's Wealth, Women and God ., Consume according to your requirements and contribute the rest to the society Earn wealth through honest and truthful work.

Quite early on, and certainly since I started writing, I found that philosophical questions occupied me more than any other kind. I hadn't really thought of them as being philosophical questions, but one rapidly comes to an understanding that philosophy's only really about two questions: 'What is true?' and 'What is good?'

There's a reason evolution is a hot-button issue. It's not just a matter of science, either. It's a matter of the big questions in life - why are we here, what is truth, where is our moral basis?

Animals have this way of constantly confronting us with ultimate questions - about truth and falsehood, guilt and innocence, God and sanctity and the soul - forcing us to define ourselves and our relationship to the world.

No man is straitly honest to any but himself and God.

I have always been happy. Even if I had been more honest with regard to myself at that moment I should still have written La Nausee.

Humanism involves far more than the negation of supernaturalism. It requires an affirmative philosophy . . . translated into a life devoted to one's own improvement and the service of all mankind.

Being honest doesn't mean you say whatever you want, wherever you want. It means that what you choose to say is true.

You want beauty,' said Hercules Poirot. 'Beauty at any price. For me, it is truth. I want always truth.

Be dogmatically true, obstinately holy, immovably honest, desperately kind, fixedly upright.

My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.

With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are.

It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher.

The challenge today is to convince people of the value of truth, honesty, compassion and a concern for others.

You have to be intellectually honest with yourself and others. In my judgment, all great investors are seekers of truth.