What counts as rational argumentation is as historically determined and as context-dependent, as what counts as good French.

Had there been no Plato, the Christians would have had a harder time selling the idea that all God really wanted from us was fraternal love.

Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.

Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.

If the body had been easier to understand, nobody would have thought that we had a mind.

The difference between people and ideas is... only superficial.

You read the pragmatists and all you know is: not Descartes, not Kant, not Plato. It's like aspirin. You can't use aspirin to give yourself power, you take it to get rid of headaches. In that way, pragmatism is a philosophical therapy. It helps you stop asking the unhelpful questions.