Dennett, Daniel

"The idea that science can only discuss things that are reproducible and predictable is just dead wrong."

"There is no such thing as a truly selfless act. Even helping others produces good feelings in the helper."

"The intentional stance is the strategy of interpreting the behavior of an entity by treating it as if it were a rational agent."

"Free will is not some mysterious extra ingredient; it is the absence of impediments to action."

"Consciousness is a product of the physical brain, and there is nothing mysterious about this."

"We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling machines that think."

"The human brain is a biological computer."

"Breaking down consciousness into its components destroys nothing but our illusions about it."

"Natural selection is not an intelligent designer; it is a blind watchmaker."

"You can't protect your privacy if you don't know what data is being collected about you."

"The idea that the soul is immaterial and immortal is a historical accident."

"Meaning is not something that transcends the physical world; it emerges from it."

"Cultural evolution is a real phenomenon, and memes are real units of cultural replication."

"The self is not a thing but a process, a narrative center of gravity."

"Evolution explains the existence of mind without invoking miracles."

"We must learn to love being wrong, because that is how we learn."

"Determinism is not the same as fatalism; we can still have reasons and make choices."

"The hard problem of consciousness is actually a confused question."

"Art is the most powerful tool for changing consciousness that we have."

"Money is just frozen desire; it's a promise to deliver future satisfaction."

"Qualia are not intrinsic features of conscious states; they are functional properties."

"We are the only creatures that can contemplate our own extinction."

"Language is not the dress of thought, but a constitutive part of it."

"The brain is the only machine that can understand itself."

"Hope is not an emotion; it is a rational assessment of probabilities."

"Evolution has given us the ability to transcend our evolutionary instincts."

"Music is structured noise, but that structure is what moves us."

"We must be willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if it contradicts our beliefs."

"The purpose of life is not something predetermined; we create it."

"Artificial intelligence is not science fiction; it is science fact."