How to Live a Good Life Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“The thought is that Hitler is an unfortunate node in the way the world is unfolding. He did not choose to be the evil person he is. He deserves compassion, not anger. And he must die for reasons of compassion: compassion for him and all those who might suffer his awfulness.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Understanding is the beginning of both wisdom and compassion.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“The ancient Epicureans observed that, since we are all made of particles and we observe no sentience after death, fear-based religion is unnecessary and people should focus on living well. After we die, the particles in our bodies return to nature and are recycled into other bodies. There are important ethical repercussions once we accept that we get only one life.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“The fact that our qualities are relational has ethical implications. Since there is no “me” that is completely independent of my relationships, I live well to the extent that I do a good job at my relationships.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Suggested Readings Conze, Edward. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1951/ 2003. A short philosophical primer on the essence of Buddhism. Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. The Art of Happiness: A Guide for Living. New York: Riverhead. 1998. A sales pitch for Buddhism as a way to be happy. Flanagan, Owen. The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“eat well, exercise daily, get plenty of sleep, and do well in school.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“You cannot choose your family, but you may have to remind yourself that you love them, because you do (whether you like it or not).”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Real ethical development is hard work and takes a long time.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Growing intelligence correlates with enlarging freedom. Science’s knowledge has proven to be the most empowering resource yet devised by human intelligence. Denying science, as religion often does, disrespects the mind and disempowers humanity.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Secular humanism finds that human life is meaningful and worthy, for no better reason than we judge life to be meaningful and worthy. Needing to be told by a higher authority how life is meaningful only deprives our lives of their intrinsic worth. Dignity and autonomy cannot depend on someone else, not even a god, who decides that you are worthy—one must affirm one’s own right to live for oneself.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Secular humanism rightly looks to reason and science, but lingering there is not enough. Religions hasten to tie secularism down to materialism, and link materialism with egoism, nihilism, and anarchy. Compared to that portrayal, spirituality or even supernaturalism might look sane and safe.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Too often, religions think that unless religious people are allowed special powers and privileges to advance religion and affect the lives of many people outside of church, they are not getting legal equality.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Secular humanism is a philosophical worldview, not a narrow ideology. It incorporates wisdom from ancient sources, such as Socrates, Aristotle, and Stoicism, blended with modern liberalism and utilitarianism, and infused with an existentialist sensibility, a naturalistic perspective, and a pragmatic optimism.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Between the poles of individualism and community, freedom and constraint, pragmatism emerged as a genuinely American philosophical outlook—and as a way of life.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“So is there a better way of framing our identity? Part of the Christian answer to this question focuses on a relationship with God that affirms, whatever else we are, we are loved by God and individually known to God by name. We find identity, meaning, and value within the context of this relationship.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Through inhabiting the Christian narrative, we come to see ourselves, as the medieval writer Julian of Norwich famously put it, as being enfolded in the love of Christ, which brings us a new security, identity, and value. Our self-worth is grounded in being loved by God.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Such Christian frameworks of meaning encourage a positive expectation on the part of believers that something may be learned and gained through illness and suffering.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Perhaps the greatest threat to any sense of coherence to reality is posed by the existence of pain and suffering. Christianity provides a series of mental maps that allow for illness and suffering to be seen as coherent, meaningful, and potentially positive in terms of fostering personal growth and development.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“The New Testament frequently affirms that the Christian hope of eternal life in the future is linked with the experience of suffering in the present, and sees this link as expressed in the story of Christ’s passion and crucifixion: “We share in [Christ’s] sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“For Christians, the term “faith” designates not a formal assent to a belief, but rather an act of trust and commitment to a way of envisioning our world, and exploring its implications for thought and action.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“One of my favorite modern readings, found in the Reform movement’s prayer book, describes what I believe to be the true power of prayer: Prayer invites God’s Presence to suffuse our spirits, God’s will to prevail in our lives. Prayer may not bring water to parched fields, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city. But prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, [and] rebuild a weakened will.2”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“To paraphrase Ben Zoma: “Who is wise? The one who learns from all traditions.” I have learned valuable lessons from other traditions while maintaining my own identity and beliefs. This teaching also calls me to listen to those whose political opinions differ from mine. How wise our world would become if only we would all learn from each other!”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“At the heart of the Torah, in the middle of the book of Leviticus, we find the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18).”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“This willingness to entertain more than one idea as worthy and the respect shown for minority opinions are attitudes that draw me to Jewish thought. Differences in opinion are appreciated and encouraged. Sometimes, they even provide a source of amusement. In modern times, we like to quip, “Two Jews, three opinions.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“In a medical context, such an etiology can mean that some Hindus would welcome suffering rather than try to alleviate it. Palliative care, for example, may not be desirable if the Hindu believes that her suffering is the expression and manifestation of pāpa (demeritorious) karma. A Hindu may believe that relieving suffering may merely delay the manifestation of pāpa karma. The relief, then, would only be temporary and may even incur more pāpa and prolong or intensify the inescapable.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“Hindus resort to karma in order to explain both positive and negative events in their lives, and in what they observe in the lives of others. Suffering is thus inextricably linked to the consequences of actions, which are guided by and incur karma. In this way, saṃsāra is unavoidably pervaded by some degree of suffering. According to this mechanism of causality, agents (human and nonhuman) are directly responsible for their own suffering (physical, mental, spiritual, existential, and so on).”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You

“In this connection, unlike their Christian counterparts, Hindus are not disturbed with anavasthā (infinite regresses). The necessity to posit a “first cause” that had no previous cause, as the Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas suggested, does not appear on the Hindu radar. So there are some metaphysical questions that are neither asked nor answered by Hindus.”
― Massimo Pigliucci, How to Live a Good Life: Choosing the Right Philosophy of Life for You