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To be a god can ultimately become boring and degrading. There'd be reason enough for the invention of free will! A god might wish to escape into sleep...more

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Guilt starts as a feeling of failure.

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Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testi...more

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Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality.

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Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.

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Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as...more

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There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.

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When a Truthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memory - in her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the past... but...more

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My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This i...more

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No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

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The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.

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We accept too damned many things on the explanations of people who could have good reasons for lying.