Quotes by Julian Baggini

About Julian Baggini:

Julian Baggini is a British philosopher, and the author of several books about philosophy written for a general audience. He wrote The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments (2005) and is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Philosophers' Magazine. He was awarded his PhD in 1996 from University College London for a thesis on the philosophy of personal identity. He contributes to a variety of newspapers, magazines and BBC radio.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Life is full of what-ifs, many of which could easily have been realities, had just a few things been different.

Julian Baggini

Most people believe, more or less, that the value of a human life is the same, irrespective of where on the planet it happens to find itself. But, of course, not every life has the same value for us.

Julian Baggini

If philosophy is to be a valuable part of life, we have to appreciate it for its own sake, and not just for what it's done for us lately.

Julian Baggini

Love is indeed, at root, the product of the firings of neurons and release of hormones.

Julian Baggini

There are many things you shouldn't measure. Don't, for example, try to measure how much you love your wife!

Julian Baggini

Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.

Julian Baggini

Waiting is so unusual that many of us can't stand in a queue for 30 seconds without getting out our phones to check for messages or to Google something.

Julian Baggini

It's not leftovers that are wasteful, but those who either don't know what to do with them or can't be bothered.

Julian Baggini

If there's one thing that makes me cynical, it's optimists. They are just far too cynical about cynicism. If only they could see that cynics can be happy, constructive, even fun to hang out with, they might learn a thing or two.

Julian Baggini

True humility is expressed in deeds, not words. The humble are those who truly walk the same ground as everyone else - not necessarily with grovelling, hunched backs, but certainly not lording it over others, either.

Julian Baggini

The truly humble feel the ground beneath their feet every day and do not only become aware of it when held aloft or pushed down to their knees.

Julian Baggini

Dover's cliffs call to mind the Roman invasion; the Battle of Britain; our proximity to, yet difference from, mainland Europe; and international trade and exploration, both fair and exploitative.

Julian Baggini

The idea that the mind can extend even beyond the body is an intriguing one, and is bound to become more pressing as we increasingly develop technologies that augment our natural abilities.

Julian Baggini

To become a stoic is to endorse the truthfulness of its world view and accept its prescription for how you ought to live, not just to like how it makes you feel.

Julian Baggini

Cooking can be rewarding when it is a choice and no longer the onerous duty of the housewife, and when a dishwasher can lighten the load at the other end of the process.

Julian Baggini

Accepting that the world is full of uncertainty and ambiguity does not and should not stop people from being pretty sure about a lot of things.

Julian Baggini

The mark of a mature, psychologically healthy mind is indeed the ability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity, but only as much as there really is. Uncertainty is no virtue when the facts are clear, and ambiguity is mere obfuscation when more preci...

Julian Baggini

It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim 'never say never' is one of the most important in ethics.

Julian Baggini

I maintain the importance of an absolute prohibition against torture, while acknowledging that even absolute prohibitions can sometimes be broken. If that is a contradiction, it is a contradiction that ethics has to embrace, or else it becomes like g...

Julian Baggini

The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.

Julian Baggini

Constructive complaint requires only two things: that what you are complaining about should be different, and that it can be different. It sounds simple, but too often our protests fail this test.

Julian Baggini

Author Bio

  • NameJulian Baggini
  • DescriptionEnglish philosopher
  • Born1968
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Writer