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If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that does not matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair.

— Thomas Nagel Mortal Questions (1979)

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More quotes by Thomas Nagel

Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.

Mortal Questions (1979)

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.

The View From Nowhere (1986)

Consciousness is what makes the mind–body problem really intractable.

What is it like to be a bat? (1974)

I should not really object to dying if it were not followed by death.

Mortal Questions (1979)

Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions.

Concealment and Exposure and Other Essays (1998)

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