Quotes by Julian Baggini

You should protest about the views of people you disagree with over major moral issues, and argue them down, but you should not try to silence them, however repugnant you find them. That is the bitter pill free speech requires us to swallow.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

Perhaps the biggest myth about cynicism is that it deepens with age. I think what really happens is that experience painfully rips away layers of scales from our eyes, and so we do indeed become more cynical about many of the things we naively accepted when younger.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

The optimist underestimates how difficult it is to achieve real change, believing that anything is possible and it's possible now. Only by confronting head-on the reality that all progress is going to be obstructed by vested interests and corrupted by human venality can we create realistic programmes that actually have a chance of success.

— Julian Baggini

Success

The greatest moral failing is to condemn something as a moral failing: no vice is worse than being judgmental.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

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 precise terms are applicable.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

Nature deals the cards without thought or care, and there is no point in blaming the dealer. All we can do is make the best of the hands we have been dealt.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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

Life

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

Happiness

Christmas is a rare occasion when we are reminded that we have obligations to people we did not choose to be related to, and that love is not just a spontaneous feeling but something we sometimes really have to work at, with people we may not even much like.

— Julian Baggini

Love

Any celebration meal to which guests are invited, be they family or friends, should be an occasion for generous hospitality.

— Julian Baggini

Friendship

'That which does not kill me makes me stronger' is not a law of the universe. What it can be, if we so choose, is a resolution.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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 glass: hard, clear, but fatally inflexible.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

Big sporting events and spectacles might give the national morale a shot in the arm, but they are too transient and taste-specific to stand as robust symbols of nationhood.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

True respect means taking other people's beliefs seriously and assuming they are adult and intelligent enough to be able to cope with it if you tell them, clearly and civility, why you think they are totally, utterly and disastrously wrong.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

Too often, complaint is not about principled objection on moral grounds, but opportunistic objection on grounds of self-interest. To rectify this, we need to work on mastering the art of complaint.

— Julian Baggini

Success

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

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

Being a good neighbour is about compassion, which is as warm-blooded as justice is cool-headed.

— Julian Baggini

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

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

Wisdom