Raymond M. Smullyan > Quotes

“Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is because I'm a Gemini.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, 5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies

“How can you call that which was forced on me a gift? I have free will, but not of my own choice. I have never freely chosen to have free will. I have to have free will, whether I like it or not.”
― Raymond Smullyan

“No, free will is not an 'extra'; it is part and parcel of the very essence of consciousness. A conscious being without free will is simply a metaphysical absurdity.”
― Raymond Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent: A Whimsical and Sophisticated Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Inner Serenity

“The knowledge of the ancients was perfect. How perfect? I will tell you. At first they did not yet know that there were things. This is the most perfect knowledge; nothing can be added. Next they knew things but did not yet make distinctions between them. Next they made distinctions between them but did not yet pass judgements upon them. When judgement was passed, Tao was destroyed. With the destruction of Tao, individual preferences come into being.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent: A Whimsical and Sophisticated Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Inner Serenity

“A conscious being without free will is simply a metaphysical absurdity.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent: A Whimsical and Sophisticated Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Inner Serenity

“I do not assert that it is logically impossible for a person to be both moralistic and humane, but I have yet to meet one who is!”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent: A Whimsical and Sophisticated Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Inner Serenity

“What's the sense of a question without an answer?" asked Alice.
"Ah, that's the kind that makes you think!" he replied.
"Think about what?" asked Alice.
"About what the answer could be," he replied.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Alice in Puzzle-Land

“The Sage falls asleep not because he ought to
Nor even because he wants to
But because he is sleepy.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent: A Whimsical and Sophisticated Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Inner Serenity

“Man can never eliminate the necessity of using his own intelligence, regardless of how cleverly he tries!”      I”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, The Gödelian Puzzle Book: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Proofs

“You mean," replied Alice, utterly astonished, "that a person can actually believe something, and yet believe that he doesn't believe it?”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Alice in Puzzle-Land

“I can think offhand of two examples. Which one would you like me to give you first?"
"How could I know?" asked Alice. "Since I have no idea what examples you have in mind, how could I possibly tell you which one to give me?"
"Right again," replied Humpty.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Alice in Puzzle-Land

“Well, Humpty Dumpty is one of the keenest arguers I know... he almost had me convinced that I had no valid reason to be sure that I was awake... It took me about three hours, but I finally convinced him that I must be awake, and so he conceded that I had won the argument. And then--."
The King did not finish his sentence and stood lost in thought.
"And then what?" asked Alice.
"And then I woke up!" said the King, a bit sheepishly.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Alice in Puzzle-Land

“I believe that Goethe somewhere said that the reason for his believing in an afterlife was that he simply could not conceive of himself as not existing, and he could hardly believe something that he could not even imagine! And so Goethe on a conscious level reacted exactly as Freud says that all of us react on an unconscious level. I have known others who have reacted similarly on a purely conscious level—I am one such person. I believe that my inability to conceive of myself as nonexisting is a far more potent factor in my belief in an afterlife than my desiring to have one!”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness

“I can't think of everything!" replied Alice.
"I never said you could," replied Humpty Dumpty. "I merely said you should.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Alice in Puzzle-Land

“Our own death is indeed unimaginable, and whenever we make the attempt to imagine it, we can perceive that we really survive as spectators. Hence, the psychoanalytic school could venture on the assertion that at the bottom no one believes in his own death, or to put the same thing in another way, in the unconscious, everyone is convinced of his own immortality” (Freud 1958, 222-23).”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness

“One of them is named John," I replied.

"Such a common name!" exclaimed Michael. "It seems that just about every Tom, Dick, and Harry is called John!”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Alice in Puzzle-Land

“Freud’s belief that we all unconsciously believe in an afterlife reminds me of Calvin’s belief that we all, deep down, believe in God—only Calvin goes further and claims that deep down we all know that there is a God. I tend to believe that Calvin is right in that we all unconsciously believe in a God, only I do not share Calvin’s belief that this constitutes evidence that there is a God. I also believe (as does Carl Jung) that our unconscious belief in a God, coupled with our conscious rejection of the idea, is responsible for an enormous number of our neurotic disorders.”
― Raymond M. Smullyan, Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness