Theodore Dalrymple Quotes

Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can.

It seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpretive possibility of those actions.

The collection of prejudices which is called political philosophy is useful provided that it is not called philosophy.

Convictions are much more an enemy of the truth than lies.

Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.

It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering.

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides whatever facts call theory into question.

Found your opinions on facts, not prejudices. We know too many things that are not true

If prejudice could reason, it would dispel itself.

Though what we accept be true, it is a prejudice unless we ourselves have considered and understood why and how it is true.

The habit of an opinion often leads to the complete conviction of its truth, it hides the weaker parts of it, and makes us incapable of accepting the proofs against it.

At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.

I think that it is morally wrong to be an economic determinist.

If the Soviet Government orders me to act against my conscience, I do not obey …. Conscience is above the law. No law which is against the conscience can bind.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

If you say morality is just what you like, you lose the metaphysical level of what in the history of philosophy is called 'categorical imperative.'

You cannot allow whether someone likes you or not to alter your course of action. Sometimes I think, 'Sure, that hurts my feelings.' But it's not so important that I will adjust what I'm doing because someone is not going to like me.

Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.

Some people have facts; these can be proven. Some people have theories; these can be disproven. But people with opinions are mindless and have their minds made up about it.

Even if trolley problems were a realistic concern for AVs, it is not clear what, if anything, regulators or companies developing AVs should do about them. The trolley problem is an intensely debated thought experiment precisely because there isn't a consensus on what should be done.

People will assume what a record is going to be like and they are loath to even give it a listen.

Life without prejudice, were it ever to be tried, would soon reveal itself to be a life without principle.

Sometimes you're going to be faced with situations where the line isn't clear between what's right and what's wrong.Your heart will tell you to do one thing and your brain will tell you to do something different. In the end, all that's left is to look at both sides and go with your best judgment.

Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through past prejudice, his duty becomes part of his nature.

Should I be the one to play God? We're both about the same age, but we grew up in different neighborhoods.