I don't think that anything of any consequence is known a priori: all our knowledge is built up by modifying the lore passed on to us by our ancestors in light of our experiences, and the best a philosopher can do is to learn as much about what has been discovered in various empirical fields, and use it to try to craft an improved synthesis.
Then it is in me, too, the psychotic streak. A psychotic world we live in. The madmen are in power. How long have we known this? Faced this? And-how many of us do know it? ... Perhaps if you know you are insane then you are not insane. Or you are becoming sane, finally. Waking up. I suppose only a few are aware of all this. Isolated persons here and there. But the broad masses-what do they think? All these hundreds of thousands in this city, here. Do they imagine that they live in a sane world? Or do they guess, glimpse, the truth...?
I think the collectors have made an enormous contribution, not only to the market but to painters themselves... These people that buy, that set standards, make everyone else itch to emulate.
I think in this country [UK] we could do with rather less political correctness and more straight talking across the board.
The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.
Actually, most people don't think I have too much sense because I would rather be fairly intelligent and act dumb instead of not having any sense at all and try to act smart.
I don't think my style of play is what has prevented me from winning major championships. I think that execution has been more of a factor.
I think every parent, every generation has wanted their children to do better and have a higher standard of living. But I think there's too much guilt.
All of us make assumptions about what somebody's potential is, because we all think of why somebody can or can't do something. We make terrible assumptions.
I think the most rewarding part of the job, and I think most coaches would say it, is practice. If you have it, a very good practice in which you have 12 guys participate, and they can really get something out of it, lose themselves in practice.
I have to leave the games now if the announcer says something I don't agree with. I'm thinking, 'Peyton, it is not healthy to be all worked up before a game.
If people think I'm a laid-back guy, that's their mistake.
What's cool is when people send me messages or tag me in their photos, which definitely happens more after a project comes out. The best part, I think, is that the DMs and tags are always from young girls, and reaching them is the most important thing for me.
Technology and capitalism are very much linked. I think that capitalism probably works best in a technologically progressing society.
Thinking about how disturbingly herdlike people become in so many different contexts - mimetic theory forces you to think about that, which is knowledge that's generally suppressed and hidden. As an investor-entrepreneur, I've always tried to be contrarian, to go against the crowd, to identify opportunities in places where people are not looking.
Further, for once, I like the idea that people who think I'm a constant voice for the furthering of the imagination have to see that interest in a more materialistic fashion.
Once again, I think there is little art being done that really owns up to such intense possibilities.
I'm not overly alarmist about it, but I do think there are some worrying signs, like the growing accumulation of wealth by a very small proportion of the population, plus elections in the US are much more dominated by money than anywhere else calling itself a democracy.
As we realize that more and more things have global impact, I think we're going to get people increasingly wanting to get away from a purely national interest.
The idea that we can actually have an impact on places more or less instantly, too, by responding in some way or not responding, I think, also makes it true.
My work is based on the assumption that clarity and consistency in our moral thinking is likely, in the long run, to lead us to hold better views on ethical issues.
I would like us to think about it more explicitly, and not take our intuitions as the given of ethics, but rather to reflect on it, and be more open about the fact that something is an ethical issues and think what we ought to do about it.
It is a testament to our naïveté about culture that we think that we can change it by simply declaring new values. Such declarations usually produce only cynicism.
Sociologists are those academic accountants who think that truth can be shaken from an abacus.
It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.
