Quotes from Bernard Williams

The majority of philosophers are totally humorless. That's part of their trouble.

I was interested in philosophy before I knew I was. That's to say, when I was at school, I used to argue with my friends about issues that turned out to be philosophical ones of some kind.

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.

Sooner or later we all quote our mothers.

Philosophy is altogether less pure now. It's been impurified by science and social science and history.

This is the end of the day, but soon there will be a new day.

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.

People who say, 'Let the chips fall where they may, ' usually figure they will not be hit by a chip.

We grow a little every time we do not take advantage of somebody's weakness.

Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.

Life is supposed to be a series of peaks and valleys. The secret is to keep the valleys from becoming Grand Canyons.

Few things move as quietly as the future.

Few things are as democratic as a snowstorm.

A friend is a lot of things, but a critic isn't.

If there's one theme in all my work, it's about authenticity and self-expression. It's the idea that some things are, in some real sense, really you - or express what you and others aren't.

An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity.

Disagreement does not necessarily have to be overcome. It may remain an important and constitutive feature of our relations to others and also be seen as something that is merely to be expected in the light of the best explanations we have of how such disagreement arises.

The people I really do dislike are the morally unimaginative kind of evolutionary reductionists who, in the name of science, think they can explain everything in terms of our early hominid ancestors or our genes, with their combination of high-handed tone and disregard for history. Such reductive speculation encourages a really empty scientism.

Books had instant replay long before televised sports.

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.

Women have a favorite room, men a favorite chair.

What a strange world this would be if we all had the same sense of humor.

Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.

People who say, 'Let the chips fall where they may,' usually figure they will not be hit by a chip.