In short, we need to recover the courage we celebrate in our heroes, and in particular, the courage to tolerate, for the sake of a free society, a level of risk we hardly ever imagined in the past. -Daniel Dennett Courage
I don't think the 9/11 attacks taught us anything we didn't already know about religion. It has long been obvious - even to the deeply religious - that religious fanaticism is an extremely dangerous deranger of otherwise sane and goodhearted people. -Daniel Dennett Religion
The problem is that no ethical system has ever achieved consensus. Ethical systems are completely unlike mathematics or science. This is a source of concern. -Daniel Dennett Science
A child raised on a desert island, alone, without social interaction, without language, and thus lacking empathy, is still a sentient being. -Daniel Dennett Alone
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. -Daniel Dennett Happiness
We adore babies because they're so cute. And, of course, we are amused by jokes because they are funny. This is all backwards. It is. And Darwin shows us why. -Daniel Dennett Funny
The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it! -Daniel Dennett Home
