Daniel Dennett

“There's nothing I like less than a bad argument for a view I hold dear.”

“Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who you are, or cares.”

“Darwin's dangerous idea is that design can emerge from blind, purposeless, mechanistic processes.”

“The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.”

“There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.”

“The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them — especially not from yourself.”

“Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery.”

“A scholar is just a library's way of making another library.”

“In the long run, I'm convinced that the best way to get along with people is to be straightforward and honest and to be as clear as you can be.”

“The problem is that no ethical system has ever been able to resolve all the dilemmas it has engendered.”

“Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making.”

“The time is past when we can passively permit religious traditions to be beyond criticism.”

“I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and we philosophers are better at questions than answers.”

“It is not so important what you believe, but why you believe it.”

“We are all zombies. Nobody is conscious.”

“Let me tell you about my trouble with post-modernism. I've been listening to it for 20 years, and I'm still not sure what it is.”