Karel Capek Quotes

In passing, we should note this curious mark of our own age: the only absolute allowed is the absolute insistence that there is no absolute.

We are coming out of a century that was taught that one way of looking at the world, that one form of behavior, is as valid as another. The idea of true evil has been blown away.

Intellectuals are too sentimental for me.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

I just feel I'm on a different page from the reviewers, so I've learned not to care about them too much.

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open.

I think most people are indifferent in their evaluation of what is good or bad.

Feelings are not everything! There is very little absolute truth in life.

Objectivity in the end is an unattainable ideal.

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it

We're always trying to say things are right or wrong, bad or good. If we just chilled out, maybe things wouldn't be so hard.

No disrespect, but I don't make decisions based on opinions.

Critics and criticism are part of the game and I've not been affected by it.

We're awash in toxic memes right now. One of the most toxic, I think because it enables so many others, is the idea that truth doesn't matter, that truth is just relative, that there's no such thing as establishing the truth of anything. Your truth, my truth, we're all entitled to our own truths. That's pernicious, it's attractive to many people, and it is used to exploit people in all sorts of nefarious ways. The truth really does matter.

The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, that is what makes him a philosopher.

Philosophy is not one truth, but thousands of truths. You don't have to believe in just one thing. When you chose one idea, you close yourself to the rest.

There is not wrong, there is no right, and I will sleep very well tonight.

But this is the kind of ass-clownery that stems from the fact that all philosophy looks weird when you don't have one.

Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

I would give my life for a man who is looking for the truth. But I would gladly kill a man who thinks that he has found the truth.

I want to give moral relativism the good spanking it deserves.

I am someone who values truth - actual truth as opposed to "truthiness." I am also someone who has been trained in deconstruction in the literary theory department of Yale University, so I am someone who is tempted to believe that no absolute truth is possible.

The laughter in response to my question unmasked the double standard our deconstructionists espouse. And that is precisely the double standard of atheism! It is possible to dress up and romanticize our bizarre experiments in social restructuring while disavowing truth or absolutes. But one dares not play such deadly games with the foundations of good thinking.

There is no such thing as a true account of anything.

A good philosopher is one who does not take ideas seriously.