Words matter. These are the best Michel Onfray Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Religion is like magic. It is all about tricks.
I discovered philosophy in my youth when I read ‘wildly,’ and thus I was exposed to the world of ideas.
Philosophy is best practised by people in general and not by philosophers alone. Philosophy is too often a luxury now, but in ancient Greece, carpenters, masons and beggars were the main practitioners. What I am trying to develop is a philosophical system where all the subjects can be taught.
We do not possess an official certificate of birth for worship of one God. But the family line is clear: the Jews invented it to endure the coherence, cohesion and existence of their small, threatened people.
Religion is a reassurance – in fact, that’s its only purpose.
God is a fiction invented by people so they do not have to face the reality of their condition.
We are fashioned not by our genes, but by our environment – by the family and socio-historic conditions in which we evolve.
For the establishment, philosophy is both an elitist and an idealist discipline: In high school, it is a compulsory subject; at university, they teach the idealist line. They are conducting a conversation with themselves.
If we include hedonistic philosophy in hospitals, the lives of patients suffering from cancer would be much, much better.
Death is a false fear. When it is here, you won’t be. When it’s not, you are here.
Many militants of the secular cause look astonishingly like clergy. Worse: like caricatures of clergy.
Religion is an irrational construct.
By aiming for paradise, we lose sight of earth. Hope of a beyond and aspiration to an afterlife engender a sense of futility in the present. If the prospect of getting taken up to paradise generates joy, it is the mindless joy of a baby picked up from his crib.
I believe in libertarian options because they allow an interesting management of the capital and are based on co-operation, reciprocity, contract, federation.
I am a sworn atheist and therefore from my point of view the Talmud or the Koran don’t constitute works of political philosophy but rather writings that stand in utter contradiction to concepts like logic, freedom, feminism, secularism, brotherhood – which are my ideals.
