Quotes from William Irvine

OUR MOST IMPORTANT CHOICE in life, according to Epictetus, is whether to concern ourselves with things external to us or things internal. Most people choose the former because they think harms and benefits come from outside themselves.

Life blindly breeds, battles, and slaughters its way up to mind and rationality

Nature breeds a vast oversupply of experiments and then sterilizes the failures by murdering them.

To think wishfully, to rest in comforting illusion when scientific truth is conceivably within reach, is to desecrate both one's self and the universe.

Who would be a more suitable leader of a city or more worthy to rule over people than a philosopher? It is appropriate for him (if he really is a philosopher) to be wise, self-controlled, magnanimous, a judge of just and proper things, able to accomplish what he sets out to do, and able to endure pain. In addition to these things, he should be bold, fearless, able to face things that seem terrible, and also a benefactor, honest, and humane.

Science and religion...have been perennially at war. The one studies nature and produces progress. The other explores supernature and produces confusion and darkness. In fact, progress is directly proportionate to the victory of naturalism over supernaturalism.