1
My faith in the expertise of physicists like Richard Feynman, for instance, permits me to endorse–and, if it comes to it, bet heavily on the truth of–a proposition that I don't understand. So far, my faith is not unlike religious faith, but I am not in the slightest bit motivated to go to my death rather than recant the formulas of physics. Watch: E doesn't equal mc2, it doesn't, it doesn't! I was lying, so there! .Daniel C. Dennett
2
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.Daniel C. Dennett
3
Those who feel guilty contemplating "betraying" the tradition they love by acknowledging their disapproval of elements within it should reflect on the fact that the very tradition to which they are so loyal–the "eternal" tradition introduced to them in their youth–is in fact the evolved product of many adjustments firmly but delicately made by earlier lovers of the same tradition.Daniel C. Dennett
4
People are afraid of being more ignorant than their children―especially, apparantly, their daughters.Daniel C. Dennett
5
One of the surprising discoveries of modern psychology is how easy it is to be ignorant of your own ignorance.Daniel C. Dennett