Skip to content

It’s a good reason for postponing pleasures that you will then have more time in which you can enjoy looking forward to them. I remember exactly when, at the age of eight, I changed over from eating the best bits first to eating them last.

— Derek Parfit Summary of Discussion’, Synthese, vol. 53, no. 2 (1982)

Another quote →

More quotes by Derek Parfit

What now matters most is how we respond to various risks to the survival of humanity.

On What Matters: Volume One (2011)

To be a person, a being must be self-conscious, aware of its identity and its continued existence over time.

Reasons and Persons (1984)

On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering.

On What Matters: Volume One (2011)

I am less concerned about the rest of my own life, and more concerned about the lives of others.

Reasons and Persons (1984)

All other things being equal, the mere fact that something “isn’t done” is in itself an excellent reason for doing it.

All Derek Parfit quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Derek Parfit (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.