Anything that has to have science in its name isn’t a science.

— Peter Seibel, Coders at Work

If I was truly smart, I should be able to figure out how to be happy, not wretched. Apparently, I didn’t know how to use “smart” to create “happy.”

— Gerald M. Weinberg, Fiona Charles, Keats Kirsch, Dani Weinberg, and Earl Everett, Weinberg on Writing

When there are rational grounds for an opinion, people are content to set them forth and wait for them to operate. In such cases, people do not hold their opinions with passion; they hold them calmly, and set forth their reasons quietly. The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction.

— Bertrand Russell, Let the People Think

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

— Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

I believe that it is right and proper for me, as a human being, to have an interest in the future, and what human civilization becomes in the future. One of those interests is the human pursuit of truth, which has strengthened slowly over the generations (for there was not always Science). I wish to strengthen that pursuit further, in this generation. That is a wish of mine, for the Future. For we are all of us players upon that vast gameboard, whether we accept the responsibility or not. And that makes your rationality my business.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, How to Actually Change Your Mind