Smullyan Quotes & Sayings

It has always puzzled me that so many people have taken it for granted that God favors those who believe in him. Isn't it possible that the actual God is a scientific God who has little patience with beliefs founded on faith rather than evidence? — Raymond Smullyan

Why do I act as I do? To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea why. It is simply my nature to act as I act, and that's all I can say. — Raymond Smullyan

Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is that I'm a Gemini. — Raymond Smullyan

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

God, I'm a lucky son of a bitch." - Christian Grey — E.L. James

Why should I be worried about dying? It's not going to happen in my lifetime! — Raymond Smullyan

Because I have been a magician for many years, people have often asked me whether I ever have sawn a woman in half. I reply, Oh, yes I've sawn over seventy women in half in my lifetime, and I'm learning the second half of the trick now. — Raymond Smullyan

Philosophers are in the habit of setting themselves before life and experience. — Friedrich Nietzsche

And as the Society reminds us, there's a difference between knowledge and technology. Knowledge doesn't fail us. — Ally Condie

Some people are always critical of vague statements. I tend rather to be critical of precise statements; they are the only ones which can correctly be labeled 'wrong'. — Raymond Smullyan

I've had a lot of luck. If I didn't I'd be washing bottles in Russia. — Marat Safin

I'm trying very hard not to think about anything I'm doing. Of all the iffy things I've ever done in my life, I've never had to ditch a body before. While it's giving me a migraine right now, I think the fact that I'm not an expert on corpse disposal says a lot of good things about me and my life choices. — Richard Kadrey

Only the weak need ... heroes ... and heroes need ... those around them to remain weak. — Melanie Benjamin

There is nothing like a naturalistic orientation to dispel all these morbid thoughts of "sin" and "free will" and "moral responsibility. — Raymond Smullyan

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. — Rumi

Humor could not flourish in a wholly serious and rational atmosphere. — Raymond Smullyan

The novel used to feed our search for meaning. Quoting Bill. It was the great secular transcendence. The Latin mass of language, character, occasional new truth. But our desperation has led us toward something larger and darker. So we turn to the news, which provides an unremitting mood of catastrophe. This is where we find emotional experience not available elsewhere. We don't need the novel. Quoting Bill. We don't even need catastrophes, necessarily. We only need the reports and predictions and warnings. — Don DeLillo

She said she doesn't like your cooking. She said she'd rather eat a microwave dinner from the convenience store instead of something you cooked. Do you get it? Hm? Why are you being such a crybaby? Save the salt from your tears for seasoning. — Kanoko Sakurakouji

It's hard to imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Interview with the Vampire. — Anne Rice

I believe that either Jupiter has life or it doesn't. But I neither believe that it does, nor do I believe that it doesn't. — Raymond Smullyan

Why should I be worried about death? ... — Raymond Smullyan

I always have my setlist planned out, but the best moments are when the energy of the crowd just gets your mind working and you are able to come up with new tags for jokes and just riff off things in the room. — Aziz Ansari

When asked why he doesn't believe in astrology, the logician Raymond Smullyan responds that he's a Gemini and Geminis never believe in astrology. — John Allen Paulos

A Christian sits in his or her well and thinks that the whole world is his or her well. The Jew sits in his or her little well and thinks that it is the whole world. A Muslim sits cooped up in his or her tiny well and believes it to be the whole universe. The same goes for a Hindu and all others. — Abhijit Naskar

Metaphysical problems about "mind" versus "matter" arise only from epistemological confusions. — Raymond Smullyan

All my life I have been intensely repelled by the idea of 'making an effort'. I hate this idea today as much as I did as a child. I don't know why I hate it so much; I just do. — Raymond Smullyan

Talking to Clarence can be like talking to a child, although it is much more charming in children. — Diane Schoemperlen

Bullshit. You say love - but you mean security. Well, there's no such thing as security. Even if you go home to your safe little husband - there's no telling that he won't drop dead of a heart attack tomorrow or piss off with another bird or just plain stop loving you. Can you read the future? Can you predict fate? What makes you think your security is so secure? All that's sure is that if you pass up this experience, you'll never get another chance at it. Death's definitive, as you said yesterday. — Erica Jong

She was a drug and he was an addict, hooked on her from the second he'd met her. — Elle Kennedy