Harry Frankfurt Quotes

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.

Harry Frankfurt

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Quotes to Explore

• I smoke, isn't that terrible?

  

  Kate Hudson
  • Terrible
  • Smoke

• I never pile a plate to the point where it overflows. I'd rather have a small plate with small portions and then get up for more if I'm still hungry.

  

  Rachel Nichols
  • Up
  • Small
  • Never

• Travel writing is harrowing. You are in paradise, more or less, having to prove it is paradise. It is hard to have a good time trying to figure out a way to say you are having a good time, whether you are having it or not, even in paradise.

  

  Padgett Powell
  • Time
  • Good
  • Writing

• A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

  

  Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Man
  • Become
  • Atheist

• In 1916, Universal Studios released the first filmed adaptation of Jules Verne's novel '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.' Georges Melies made a film by that name in 1907, but, unlike his earlier adaptations of Verne, Melies' version bears no resemblance to the book.

  

  Kage Baker
  • Book
  • Sea
  • Name

• When I travel with my kids abroad, I am not myself, but I'm more a father who wants to protect them. Sometimes, I am even aggressive about certain things and get surprised seeing myself like that: for instance, when people want to take pictures of them. I am fine if they want to take my pictures, but they are not public property.

  

  A. R. Rahman
  • People
  • Kids
  • Father

• I saw Damien Rice in Dublin when I was 13, and that inspired me to want to pursue being a songwriter... I practised relentlessly and started recording my own EPs. At 16, I moved to London and played any gigs I could, selling CDs from my rucksack to fund recording the next, and it snowballed from there.

  

  Ed Sheeran
  • Want
  • Inspired
  • Played

• I would never call a neighbor an enemy. But I would request the neighbor to be a good neighbor, to see that the neighbor's interest is a stable prosperous neighbor, a neighbor that is doing well.

  

  Hamid Karzai
  • Good
  • Enemy
  • Doing

• I had an idea when I was 18 or 19 to start tutoring people, like the way that people get tutored in saxophone or guitar, but for production. I really enjoyed it, but I don't have time for that any more.

  

  Flume
  • People
  • Time
  • Start

• I think a girl looks good when she wakes up with nothing on her face.

  

  Jackson Rathbone
  • Up
  • Good
  • She

• Journalists ask me, 'Why don't you ever talk about sex in your performances?' True, I don't talk about sex – not in my personal life and not in my professional life. This is modesty.

  

  Gad Elmaleh
  • Life
  • True
  • Sex

• Both expectations and memories are more than mere images founded on previous experience.

  

  Samuel Alexander
  • Experience
  • Memories
  • More

• I'm usually working on eight or 10 things at once.

  

  Jack Prelutsky
  • Things
  • Working
  • Once

• The life my grandparents had was thoroughly American. They built a small ranch into a huge operation and fulfilled my great-grandparents' dreams. Theirs was... a simpler time of contentment and patriotism.

  

  Dana Perino
  • Life
  • Time
  • Great

• You have to be able to love yourself because that's when things fall into place.

  

  Vanessa Hudgens
  • Things
  • Place
  • Able

• I like a full house because it's how I grew up. I'm one of six children.

  

  Kate Spade
  • Up
  • Children
  • House

• Television? The word is half Greek, half Latin. No good can come of it.

  

  C. P. Scott
  • Good
  • Television
  • Word

• My father had a dark glimmer in his eye as he moved behind her. 'Old?' He spoke in a low voice as he began to rub her shoulders again. 'Woman, I have a mind to prove you wrong.'She smiled a wry smile. 'Sir, I have a mind to let you.'

  

  Patrick Rothfuss
  • Mind
  • She
  • Father

• Traditional values are big in my life.

  

  Jennifer Hudson
  • Life

• My mother wears glasses, and so do some of my friends. When they get new ones, the old glasses go in a drawer.

  

  Erik Per Sullivan
  • Glasses
  • Some
  • Drawer

• No one in the group was really growing up besides me, which is pretty weird 'cause there was no one in that group more self-destructive than I was.

  

  Douglas Glenn Colvin Ramones
  • Up
  • Pretty
  • Growing

• If you're remarkable it's likely that some people won't like you.

  

  Seth Godin
  • People
  • Remarkable

• Real war was the thousands of Chinese refugees dying of cholera in the sealed stockades at Pootung, and the bloody heads of Communist soldiers mounted on pikes along the Bund. In a real war no one knew which side he was on, and there were no flags or commentators or winners. In a real war there were no enemies.

  

  J. G. Ballard
  • Real
  • War
  • Dying

• One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.

  

  Harry Frankfurt
  • People
  • Culture
  • Ability