It is only because a person has volitions of the second order that he is capable both of enjoying and of lacking freedom of the will.

As a philosopher, I'm not obliged to explore every unknown wilderness.

Recognizing truth requires selflessness. You have to leave yourself out of it so you can find out the way things are in themselves, not the way they look to you or how you feel about them or how you would like them to be.

It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.

I used to teach at Yale, which was at one time a center of postmodernist literary theory. Derrida was there. Paul de Man was there.

Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstance require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.