Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

Eventually, I believe, current attempts to understand the mind by analogy with man-made computers that can perform superbly some of the same external tasks as conscious beings will be recognized as a gigantic waste of time.

Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions.

Once we have taken the backward step to an abstract view of our whole system of beliefs, evidence, and justification, and seen that it works only, despite its pretensions, by taking the world largely for granted, we are not in a position to contrast all these appearances with an alternative reality. We cannot shed our ordinary responses, and if we could it would leave us with no means of conceiving a reality of any kind.

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.

Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.