“If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things.”
― Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
― Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.”
― On Liberty
― On Liberty
“Philosophers' Syndrome: mistaking a failure of the imagination for an insight into necessity.”
― Consciousness Explained
― Consciousness Explained
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
― To Jerusalem and Back
― To Jerusalem and Back
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”
― Jingo
― Jingo
Hélio’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Hélio’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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