P. W. Singer Quotes
But I think the majority of cows, and even more so chickens and pigs, are leading pretty miserable lives.
There can be no brotherhood when some nations indulge in previously unheard of luxuries, while others struggle to stave off famine.
Herbert Spencer is little read now. Philosophers do not regard him as a major thinker. Social Darwinism has long been in disrepute.
If evolution is a struggle for survival, why hasn't it ruthlessly eliminated altruists, who seem to increase another's prospects of survival at the cost of their own?
The goal of maximizing the welfare of all may be better achieved by an ethic that accepts our inclinations and harnesses them so that, taken as a whole, the system works to everyone's advantage.
Ethics seems a morass which we have to cross, but get hopelessly bogged in when we make the attempt.
Sci-fi is often a metaphor. I think it's more the themes and questions that science fiction raises rather than the exact predictions that should guide us.
If one knew the truth how could there be freedom? If hell and paradise were in the middle of the marketplace, everyone would be a saint.
Only you can take inner freedom away from yourself, or give it to yourself. Nobody else can.
If experience is the best teacher, there's nothing that comes close to the experience of life.
There is no need for false solidity when you are at peace with the universal expanse of your true Being.
If we shrug our shoulders at the avoidable suffering of the weak and the poor, of those who are getting exploited and ripped off, we are not the left.
Each generation has its own dream of beauty. I have lived long enough to watch it change. Just then, he was what all sculptors were reaching after, and only the great achieved.
There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind - you are the one who hears it.
Every human character appears only once in the history of human beings. And so does every event of love.
Where do the wheels of history lead? How can you be so sure that the wheels of history won't get bogged down in blood and marrow again?
The truth is that most of life will unfold in accordance with forces far outside your control, regardless of what your mind says about it.
Everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything. And that is the only time everything will be okay.
If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.
You can't reach a mountain top without friends to help you get there.
If 10 percent of the population were to take a consciously ethical outlook on life and act accordingly, the resulting change would be more significant than any change of government,
To say that life is meaningless is to express an attitude, not to state a fact
That was when it became abundantly clear to me that simply eating in a way that avoided hurting others was never going to be enough if my eating habits were still hurting me.
Everything will be okay as soon as youare okay with everything. And that’s theonly time everything will be okay.
This is often the way we put together our lives, adding the striking qualities of others into our own character.
Acceptance means events can make it through you without resistance
Reason is inherently expansionist. It seeks universal application.
It is easy for us to criticize the prejudices of our grandfathers, from which our fathers freed themselves. It is more difficult to search for prejudices among the beliefs and values we hold.
A society that decides its controversial issues by ballots does better than one that uses bullets – which, after all, is no more likely to lead to the right conclusion than voting.
We have examined a number of ethical issues. We have seen that many accepted practices are open to serious objections. What ought we to do about it? This, too, is an ethical issue.
Putting yourself in the place of others...is what thinking ethically is all about.
...moral relativism, a position many find attractive only until they are faced with someone who is doing something really, really wrong.
Their reliance on biblical quotations does not augur well for their for their openness to moral reasoning....
If our life has no meaning other than our own happiness, we are likely to find that when we have obtained what we think we need to be happy, happiness itself still eludes us.
We have to speak up on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.
Eventually you will see that the real cause of problem is not life itself. It's the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes the problems.
When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I'm a grown up, they call me a writer.
I know what you're gonna think, what you're gonna ask. Percy Jackson, why are you hanging from a Times Square billboard without your pants on, about to fall to your death?
