Rene Ricard Quotes

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is.

It is good a philosopher should remind himself, now and then, that he is a particle pontificating on infinity.

My grandfather was a practising Quaker. My father was a nihilist. But nihilism, if you like, is the beginning of faith anyway.

Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them.

Well, I don't like to get involved in these philosophical issues very much.

I personally don't live a nihilistic life, I don't have any use for it.

Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.

I've always been interested in apologetics, the topic of different world views and, 'Why are we here?' and 'Where are we going?' I grew up in the church, and sometimes kids who grew up in a church can be sheltered and can't engage with people with different world views.

If you want the meaning of families and life and religion and philosophy rolled into one package, all you need to read is 'The Brothers Karamazov.'

Without philosophy man cannot know what he makes; without religion he cannot know why.

Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.

Who does understand life?

If you don't ponder the end of the world on a regular basis, I don't think you're really human.

The questions of philosophy proper are human desires and fears and aspirations - human emotions - taking an intellectual form.

The lyrics are a lot about those big questions: why are we here, how did we get here, what's the point, and what's next. When those questions come up with fans, I would absolutely share with them what has helped me and where I stand on what it is that I believe.

One day, I found this book at a used bookstore with 'Satanic Bible' written on the cover, and I thought maybe I should read it and see what it is. I thought it was like a religion, but then I read the book, and what was in it was pure life philosophy - and it was a life philosophy that described how I felt at that point.

It may be true that the unexamined life is not worth living-but neither is the unlived life worth examining.

Morality is always derivative. It stems from one's worldview.

The atheism and nihilism of my earlier years now seems shallow, and even a bit cocky.

Now look at me! Take a good look! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. What do you think is alive in me? Why do you think I'm alive? Because I have a stomach and eat and digest the food? Because I breathe and work and produce more food to digest? Or because I know what I want, and that something which knows how to want—isn't that life itself? And who—in this damned universe—who can tell me why I should live for anything but for that which I want?

As Socrates I believe said the unexamined life is not worth living. I believe that's true. I do believe that.

A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates.

Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. But the over-examined life makes you wish you were dead. Given the alternative, I'd rather be living.

The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life.