Daniel Dennett Quotes

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

That's something I learned as a philosophy major: The philosophy ethos is, always question, never rest.

I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and we philosophers are better at questions than answers.

Philosophy is the product of wonder. The effort after the general characterization of the world around us is the romance of human thought.

Philosophy is the sum total of all that you know and what you decide is valuable.

Are you a philosopher? Where's your sponge?

The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.

Born and nurtured when the human being first asked questions about the reason for things and their purpose, philosophy shows in different modes and forms that the desire for truth is part of human nature itself.

One of the main reasons for the existence of philosophy is not that it enables you to find truth (it can never do that) but that it does provide you a refuge for definitions.

Philosophy, the love of Wisdom, is at the very bottom defence against the incomprehensible.

You know, I've taught philosophy for years and one argues in the hypothetical all the time.

Initially, I studied philosophy, because it claimed to give you answers to the meaning of existence, but it didn't: It was basically a semantics game.

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

My purpose is to explain, not the meaning of words, but the nature of things.

All of my work is sort of fed by a question, a need to understand the world and why the world is what it is.

Philosophy is an elegant thing, if anyone modestly meddles with it; but if they are conversant with it more than is becoming, it corrupts them.

Without theory, there are no questions.

It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless.

I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

What's a philosopher?' said Brutha. Someone who's bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,' said a voice in his head.

Learning philosophy is learning a particular kind of intuitive understanding.

Philosophy is the science which considers truth.