Ontology, metaphysics, and epistemology are unlikely to bring much to the table – apart from (alas, well-hidden) examples of rigour and transparency in argument. These jewels in philosophy’s crown have to be content with their status as ends in themselves, bringing pleasure and illumination to those who are lucky enough to have the time and freedom from want, and the inclination, to engage in philosophical reflection.

— Anja Publications, Philosophy Now

Software engineering has this in common with having children: the labor before the birth is painful and difficult, but the labor after the birth is where you actually spend most of your effort.

— Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, and Niall Richard Murphy, Site Reliability Engineering

Still, hunter-gatherer religions have at least two features that are found, in one sense or another, in all the world’s great religions: they try to explain why bad things happen, and they thus offer a way to make things better.

— Robert Wright, The Evolution of God

The intelligentsia therefore feels entitled to deal with the poor as a construct; one they created. Thus they become convinced that they know what is best for them.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

…none of us, thinking alone, is rational enough to consistently come to sound conclusions: rationality emerges from a community of reasoners who spot each other’s fallacies.

— Steven Pinker, Rationality