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Julian Baggini

Julian Baggini Quotes

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Julian Baggini is a British author and philosopher born in 1968. He is known for his popularization and in-depth exploration of philosophy, with a focus on making philosophy more accessible to the general public.

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All Ifs People Thinking Philosophy Reason Should Believe Kind World Trying

Famous Julian Baggini Quotes

“Justice can only be dispensed when you have all the facts in front of you.”

Facts Justice Fronts

Author:Julian Baggini

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

Love Is Products Roots Release Hormones Firing Neurons

Author:Julian Baggini

“No one who has understood even a fraction of what science has told us about the universe can fail to be in awe of both the cosmos and of science.”

Universe Failing Understood Awe Cosmos Fractions

Author:Julian Baggini

“Society needs both justice and compassion, a head and a heart, if it is to be civilised.”

Ifs Needs Heart Justice Compassion Civilised

Author:Julian Baggini

“I don't feel proprietorial about the problems of philosophy. History has taught us that many philosophical issues can grow up, leave home and live elsewhere.”

Feels Philosophy Problem Home Grows Growing Up Issues Taught Philosophical Elsewhere Taught Us

Author:Julian Baggini

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

Trying Wife Love You Example Love Your Wife

Author:Julian Baggini

“There is such a thing as fanaticism, it is always wrong, and if you disagree, you're wrong too.”

Ifs Disagree Fanaticism Always Wrong

Author:Julian Baggini

“Wellbeing is a notion that entails our values about the good life, and questions of values are not ultimately scientific questions.”

Values Notion Good Life Wellbeing

Author:Julian Baggini

“You don't choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.”

Believe Made Moments Choices Shapes

Author:Julian Baggini

“Anger clearly has its proper place at work, which is neither wholly absent nor ever present. The manager who is an emotional blank is just as hard to work for as the volcanic boss, and both can do great harm by setting an unhelpful example for what kind of emotional expression is expected and accepted.”

Kind Hard Can Do Example Emotional Expression Harm Expected Accepted Setting Settings Managers Boss Blank Absent Emotional Expression

Author:Julian Baggini

“Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right.”

Way Chance Salvation Atheist Redemption Second Chance No Second Chances

Author:Julian Baggini

“Being able and willing to complain is what makes us rational and moral animals, capable of seeing and articulating the difference between how things are and how they should be.”

Should Able Differences Animal Moral Seeing Willing Capable Complaining Rational Articulating

Author:Julian Baggini

“Believers are right when they say that to understand a religion properly you need to get under its skin. But to understand it fully, you cannot stay there: you have to take a more objective view, too.”

Needs Views Skins Believer Objectives

Author:Julian Baggini

“Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That's why economics is not the dismal science, it's no science at all.”

Humans Matter Action Subjects Economics Fundamentals Uncertain Subject Matter Human Actions

Author:Julian Baggini

“I don't believe in God because certain reasons and arguments weigh more heavily in my mind than others, not because I have willfully decided to reject my creator, as many religious people seem to think. I could no more simply decide to believe in God than I could decide to like beetroot, just like that.”

People Thinking Mind Believe Reason Seems Certain Religious Argument Decided Don't Believe Creator Rejects Believe In God

Author: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.”

Ifs Two Might Fun One Thing Hanging Out Cynical Cynicism Optimist Constructive

Author:Julian Baggini

“If you believe you are right, then you should believe that you can make the case that you're right. This requires you to deal with serious objections properly.”

Ifs Should Believe Deals Cases Serious If You Believe Objections

Author:Julian Baggini

“In my experience, those who make the biggest fuss about not spending much at Christmas are generally the ones who buy what they want and eat where they want 12 months a year.”

Want Years Months Spending

Author:Julian Baggini

“It is often said that having gone through any kind of suffering tends to makes you appreciate life more and live more in the present. I'm not sure how universal or long-lasting these effects really are.”

Kind Long Said Suffering Gone Effects Appreciate Universal Not Sure Lasting Appreciate Life Long Lasting

Author:Julian Baggini

“Many people are never happier than when they get the opportunity to complain, while others are deeply unhappy with how things are but just accept the fact. Complaint occurs when we refuse to accept that things are wrong and we do something about it, even if that something is simply articulating our unease.”

People Ifs Facts Opportunity Accepting Refuse Complaining Unhappy Complaints Articulating

Author:Julian Baggini

“Metaphorical tone deafness is when people are unable to discern what is of value in something. I think I'm tone deaf to poetry, for instance. Despite having studied it into a second year of university, most of it just leaves me cold.”

People Thinking Years Values Cold University Despite Instance Tone Leaving Me Deaf Metaphorical Deafness

Author:Julian Baggini

“No genuine choice is ever simply a matter of the arbitrary exercise of will. Take your choice of lunch today. You can't decide to want anything, but what you want will at least in part be a result of a series of other choices and judgments you've made in your life to date.”

Want Made Matter Today Choices Results Exercise Judgment Series What You Want Genuine Lunch Arbitrary

Author:Julian Baggini

“People should not expect the state to protect them from fraudsters. If we do, we get into the habit of neglecting our own powers of intellectual discernment.”

People Ifs Should States Habit Protect Intellectual Neglect Discernment

Author:Julian Baggini

“Prayer provides an opportunity to remind oneself of how one should be living, our responsibilities to others, our own failings, and our relative good fortune, should we have it. This is, I think, a pretty worthwhile practice and it is not something you can only do if you believe you are talking to an unseen creator.”

“Progress is more of a challenge for the cynic but also more important and urgent, since for the optimist things aren't that bad and are bound to get better anyway.”

Important Challenges Progress Bounds Get Better Optimist Urgent Cynic

Author:Julian Baggini

“Rules matter, and to be rules they need to be universal in form: always do this, never do that. But it is foolish to rule out in advance the possibility that an occasion might arise when normal rules just don't apply. Rules are not there to be broken, but sometimes break them we must.”

Needs Sometimes Matter Might Form Break Possibility Broken Normal Universal Foolish Arise Occasions

Author:Julian Baggini

“The capacity to make free choices is not something we either have entirely or not at all. Rather, choices become freer the more they are the result of our own capacity to reflect on and assess facts and arguments.”

Facts Choices Results Capacity Argument Free Choice

Author:Julian Baggini

“The reason to be an atheist is not that it makes us feel better or gives us a more rewarding life. The reason to be an atheist is simply that there is no God and we would prefer to live in full recognition of that, accepting the consequences, even if it makes us less happy.”

Ifs Giving Feels Reason Accepting Consequence Atheist Recognition Feel Better There Is No God

Author:Julian Baggini

“The simplest and clearest motivation for taking animal welfare seriously is the recognition that pain is in and of itself a bad thing, and that to inflict significant amounts of it unnecessarily is wrong.”

Pain Motivation Animal Amount Significant Recognition Welfare Bad Things Simplest Animal Welfare

Author:Julian Baggini

“The supposed revelations of God to humanity through Christ, or the word of God to Mohammed through the angel Gabriel, had the power they did because they indicated new truths, new directions for followers.”

Humanity Christ Angel Revelations Followers Word Of God Gabriel New Directions

Author:Julian Baggini

“Traditional arguments for the existence of God and contemporary attempts to use fine-tuning and cosmology to back up the case for his existence always strike me as kinds of games, since hardly anyone believes on the basis of these arguments at all.”

Believe Kind Use Games Existence Cases Fine Argument Bases Strikes Contemporary Traditional Cosmology Existence Of God Tuning Fine Tuning

Author:Julian Baggini

“True virtue would never liken its rewards to points on a loyalty card, not because it is its own reward, but because it is not something we should practice to accrue future benefits.”

Should Practice Virtue Benefits Rewards Loyalty Cards

Author:Julian Baggini

“We can take suffering to be an opportunity to learn and to grow. But if we are honest, we should remember that this is making the best of a bad job, and that minimising suffering takes priority over optimising its outcome.”

Ifs Should Jobs Remember Suffering Opportunity Grows Honest Priorities Outcomes Opportunities To Learn Bad Jobs

Author:Julian Baggini

“Whatever your religious persuasion, if you believe that the universe is governed by benign forces, at some point you have to explain why there is so much suffering, misfortune and misery in the world.”

Ifs World Believe Suffering Universe Force Religious Misery Misfortunes Persuasion If You Believe Benign

Author:Julian Baggini

About the Author

Born: 1968
Known for: Author
Quotes: 134

Related Topics

Ifs People Thinking Philosophy Reason Should Believe Kind World Trying

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Atheism: A Very Short IntroductionRelated source material

AtheismRelated source material

The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and MethodsRelated source material

The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair PhilosopherRelated source material

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