Massimo Pigliucci > Quotes

“If a theory purports to explain everything, then it is likely not explaining much at all.”
― Massimo Pigliucci

“Better to endure pain in an honorable manner than to seek joy in a shameful one.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“[T]he nature of science is not that of a steady, linear progression toward the Truth, but rather a tortuous road, often characterized by dead ends and U-turns, and yet ultimately inching toward a better, if tentative, understanding of the natural world.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“One of the first lessons from Stoicism, then, is to focus our attention and efforts where we have the most power and then let the universe run as it will. This will save us both a lot of energy and a lot of worry. Another”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“The problem nowadays is that, by and large, we do a pretty bad job of picking role models. We glorify actors, singers, athletes, and generic “celebrities,” only to be disappointed when—predictably—it turns out that their excellence at reciting, singing, playing basketball, or racking up Facebook likes and Twitter followers has pretty much nothing to do with their moral fiber.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living

“Following the Post Modernist route, we may indeed never arrive at meaning, but not because meaning is not there... only because we are lost in endless linguistic games that are entirely beside the point.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“[T]he downside of skepticism: it can easily turn into an arrogant position of a priori rejection of any new phenomenon or idea, a position that is as lacking in critical thinking as the one of the true believer, and that simply does not help either science or the public at large.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“Science progresses. Ideology tends to linger unchanged, and often unquestioned.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“Confucius was once asked if there is “one teaching that can serve as a guide for one’s entire life.” He said that all you really need to know is the word reciprocity: “Do not impose upon others what you yourself do not desire.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“como afirma Cicerón. Me siento satisfecho sabiendo que, sin importar el resultado real, estoy haciendo todo lo que puedo.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Cómo ser un estoico: Utilizar la filosofía antigua para vivir una vida moderna

“realize that by “philosophers” Epictetus doesn’t mean professional academics (trust me, you don’t want to make a habit of socializing mostly with them), but rather people who are interested in following virtue and cultivating their character.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“el estoicismo no se centra en suprimir u ocultar las emociones; más bien se trata de reconocer nuestras emociones, reflexionar sobre lo que las provoca y redirigirlas para nuestro propio bien.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Cómo ser un estoico: Utilizar la filosofía antigua para vivir una vida moderna

“as astronomer Carl Sagan once aptly put it, you do not want to keep your mind so open that your brain is likely to fall out.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“Stoicism is about developing the tools to deal as effectively as humanly possible with the ensuing conflicts, does not demand perfection, and does not provide specific answers: those are for fools (Epictetus’s word) who think the world is black and white, good versus evil, where it is always possible to clearly tell the good guys from the bad guys. That is not the world we live in, and to pretend otherwise is more than a bit dangerous and not at all wise.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“Seneca actually explicitly says in his thirty-third letter to his friend Lucilius: Will I not walk in the footsteps of my predecessors? I will indeed use the ancient road—but if I find another route that is more direct and has fewer ups and downs, I will stake out that one. Those who advanced these doctrines before us are not our masters but our guides. The truth lies open to all; it has not yet been taken over. Much is left also for those yet to come.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living

“all types of virtue are really just different aspects of wisdom.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“Nothing can be traded if the price is compromising of your character.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“Señor, concédeme serenidad para aceptar todo aquello que no puedo cambiar, fortaleza para cambiar lo que soy capaz de cambiar, y sabiduría para entender la diferencia.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Cómo ser un estoico: Utilizar la filosofía antigua para vivir una vida moderna

“For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert; but for every fact there is not necessarily an equal and opposite fact. —Thomas Sowell, American economist”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“Por eso resulta crucial para la vida social no solo trabajar para mejorar nuestro carácter, sino ser capaz de evaluar el carácter de las otras personas. En este sentido hay una buena historia sobre Diógenes el Cínico. Un día (presumiblemente antes de convertirse en filósofo a jornada completa, cuando seguía siendo un banquero, nada menos), le pidieron una carta de presentación. Le dijo a su interlocutor: «Eres un hombre, y eso se lo dirán sus ojos; pero si eres bueno o malo lo acabará descubriendo si tiene la capacidad de diferenciar el bueno del malo; y si no tiene esa capacidad, nunca lo descubrirá aunque le escriba diez mil cartas».”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Cómo ser un estoico: Utilizar la filosofía antigua para vivir una vida moderna

“не обойтись без фундаментальных добродетелей: мужества, чтобы делать правильные вещи в трудных обстоятельствах; умеренности, чтобы принимать взвешенные решения; справедливости, чтобы оценивать последствия этих решений для других людей; и, разумеется, практической мудрости, чтобы прокладывать путь в коварных и изменчивых водах современной действительности.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Как быть стоиком: Античная философия и современная жизнь

“Epicureans, from the beginning, rejected idealisms and absolutes that divorced people from context and from nature, and chose to engage reality instead. Our morality is contextual. Rather than hand down absolute dos and don’ts, the first Epicureans elaborated methods by which we can most effectively use our faculties.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“El universo no se inclina ante sus deseos, sino que hace lo que hace; su jefe, sus compañeros, los accionistas de la empresa, los clientes y una serie de factores adicionales forman parte del universo, así que ¿por qué iba a esperar que cumplieran con su deseo?”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“the nature of the world (and by extension, one’s place in it) and the nature of human reasoning (including when it fails, as it so often does).”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“Но Эпиктет призывал мужественно смотреть в лицо реальности, а реальность такова, что все люди смертны и никто из них не принадлежит нам и не останется с нами навечно.

[...]

Признав эту реальность, мы понимаем, что должны наслаждаться любовью наших близких и общением с ними, когда это возможно, а не принимать их как должное: ведь неминуемо настанет день, когда «установленное время года» пройдет.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“above all, we need to be cognizant of what our integrity is worth: if we decide to sell it, it shouldn’t be for cheap. It is hard to read those words and not think about political scandals and corruption, but perhaps the cleanup should start closer to home, with our own behavior, our own too-often-unacknowledged propensity to compromise principles for the sake of convenience, our lack of courage when it is called for, our mostly theoretical sense of justice, our often flaunted temperance, and our own manifestly very limited wisdom in managing whatever life happens to throw at us.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“But that would be exactly the wrong way to look at him, because it would be an attempt to make him a godlike figure capable of doing what no human being can do: completely transcend his own upbringing. Instead, we should assess him by the standards of his own culture and time. By those standards, he was a role model indeed.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“Stoics, excellent warriors, thought something similar, that when effective action is required against an enemy, including his elimination, emotions like fear and anger get in the way, immobilize, cause one to under- or overreach, and undermine skillfully achieving one’s aims. In De Ira, and in a direct challenge to Aristotle, Seneca writes: “It is easier to banish dangerous emotions than to rule them.” The mature person is disciplined and thoughtful, whereas the angry person is undisciplined and sloppy; “anger is excited by empty matters hovering on the outskirts of the case.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Given the power and influence that science increasingly has in our daily lives, it is important that we as citizens of an open and democratic society learn to separate good science from bunk. This is not just a matter of intellectual curiosity, as it affects where large portions of our tax money go, and in some cases even whether people’s lives are lost as a result of nonsense.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

“Ahora he interiorizado la actitud estoica de que tengo control sobre algunas cosas (lo que como, si hago ejercicio), pero no sobre otras (mis genes, mis primeras experiencias y una serie de factores externos, incluida la eficacia de mi régimen de ejercicios). Por eso el resultado —el cuerpo que tengo, el grado de salud que disfruto— se tiene que aceptar con ecuanimidad; se «elige, pero no se desea», como afirma Cicerón. Me siento satisfecho sabiendo que, sin importar el resultado real, estoy haciendo todo lo que puedo.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, Cómo ser un estoico: Utilizar la filosofía antigua para vivir una vida moderna