Leon Kass Quotes

In 1990, Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin, two psychologists at the University of California, Riverside, embarked on a research project within a research project, seeking answers to the question, 'What makes for a long life?'

If I'm walking down the riverbank, and a man is drowning, even if I don't know how to swim very well, I feel this urge that the right thing to do is to try to save that person. Evolution would tell me exactly the opposite: preserve your DNA. Who cares about the guy who's drowning?

Just because you live longer doesn't necessarily give you a greater edge in quality.

Most of us believe that we are morally bound to live as long as we can and to help our neighbors do the same.

You consult your honor; I my interest.

I want to stay alive. Yeah, I want to stay alive. I think that's the main thing. If there's a chance I can live longer, I want to do it.

I don't want to do anything that capitalizes personally on the fact that I've been in public service.

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft.

He too, liked his party, and was fond of loyal men; but he had learned at last that all loyalty must be built on a basis of self-advantage. Patriotism may exist without it, but …loyalty in politics was simply devotion to the side which a man conceives to be his side, and which he cannot leave without danger to himself.

…our friend who was for protecting every other nation except his own.

The major forces in human nature: self interest and caring for others

When we understand the connection between how we live and how long we live, it's easier to make different choices. Instead of viewing the time we spend with friends and family as luxuries, we can see that these relationships are among the most powerful determinants of our well-being and survival.

Even when we see somebody incredibly evil, there's a rationalization behind what they're doing. They're at their best when they're at the moment.

There is a basic idea to this fighting spirit: that there are standards worth devoting yourself to that are more important than your self-interest.

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.

There is some pretty powerful self-interest in wanting a future that is not just running storm-to-storm. The argument that I make is not that we aren't competitive and selfish and greedy. We are. We're all of these things. We're complicated, competitive, greedy and nasty, and kind and generous and compassionate.

People say that life is short, but it isn't short. It's very long.

I don't think you should write a book until you tell the absolute truth. You can't do that until you're 85, and I don't want to live that long. I've always prided myself on knowing when to get off, and I hope it works out that way.

The true object of moral and political disquisition is pleasure or happiness.

When I was young, I used to think that everyone should die at 70.

The thing about living in the 21st century is you can get to fortysomething and not have anyone major in your life die.

I wanna live long. As long as I can.

Live to 97 and you can do anything.

I am certainly not a martyr kind of a person. I love my life. But if one has to, then there is nothing more nobler a cause that I can think of.