47+ Bernard Williams Quotes On Education, Culture And Hard Work

Bernard Williams was an English philosopher who was born in 1929 and died in 2003. He is best known for his work in moral philosophy and the philosophy of the mind. He was a Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford, and a professor of philosophy at Cambridge and Berkeley. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Bernard Williams on leadership, education, life.

Top 10 Bernard Williams Quotes

1. There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
2. It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream.
3. Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.
4. There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
5. Life is supposed to be a series of peaks and valleys. The secret is to keep the valleys from becoming Grand Canyons.
6. This is the end of the day, but soon there will be a new day.
7. If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.
8. Women have a favorite room, men a favorite chair.
9. We may pass violets looking for roses. We may pass contentment looking for victory.
10. Laziness has many disguises. Soon "winter doldrums" will become "spring fever."

Bernard Williams Image Quotes

It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream. — Bernard Williams

Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit. — Bernard Williams

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. — Bernard Williams

Bernard Williams Short Quotes

• Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.
• The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.
• Unsolicited advice is the junk mail of life.
• Sooner or later we all quote our mothers.
• I like the word "indolence." It makes my laziness seem classy.
• Tranquility is like quicksilver. The harder you grab for it, the less likely you will grasp it.
• September tries its best to have us forget summer.
• A half-truth is usually less than half of that.
• You are mature when you know what is foolhardy and what is courage.
• Few things are as democratic as a snowstorm.

Bernard Williams Quotes About People

People who say, 'Let the chips fall where they may,' usually figure they will not be hit by a chip. — Bernard Williams

People have been predicting the death of philosophy since the 17th century. When I was a student, people were saying, 'We're in the last days of philosophy.' Then we were told in the '60s it would be replaced by sociology, then by literary criticism. — Bernard Williams

I was attracted to opera when I was 15 or 16. A very rich man in England bankrupted himself to put on a lot of opera during the war, but he converted a lot of people, myself included, in the process. — Bernard Williams

People who express themselves in paradoxes are in a strong position; and the more outrageous the paradox, in general the stronger the position. — Bernard Williams

Bernard Williams Quotes About Philosophy

Virtually the only subject in which one could ever get a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge was classics. So I went to Oxford to study classics and, unlike Cambridge, it had a philosophy component, and I became completely transported by it. — Bernard Williams

I was interested in philosophy before I knew I was. That's to say, when I was at school, I used to argue with my friends about issues that turned out to be philosophical ones of some kind. — Bernard Williams

Contemporary moral philosophy has found an original way of being boring, which is by not discussing moral issues at all. — Bernard Williams

Philosophy is altogether less pure now. It's been impurified by science and social science and history. — Bernard Williams

Bernard Williams Famous Quotes And Sayings

It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream. — Bernard Williams

Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit. — Bernard Williams

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. — Bernard Williams

The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a Pirate. — Bernard Williams

Books had instant replay long before televised sports. — Bernard Williams

What a strange world this would be if we all had the same sense of humor. — Bernard Williams

No symphony orchestra ever played music like a two-year-old girl laughing with a puppy. — Bernard Williams

An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity. — Bernard Williams

If we try and fail, we have temporary disappointments. But if we do not try at all, we have permanent regrets. — Bernard Williams

Few things move as quietly as the future. — Bernard Williams

The people I really do dislike are the morally unimaginative kind of evolutionary reductionists who, in the name of science, think they can explain everything in terms of our early hominid ancestors or our genes, with their combination of high-handed tone and disregard for history. Such reductive speculation encourages a really empty scientism. — Bernard Williams

Tragedy is formed 'round ideas it does not expound, and to understand its history is, in some part, to understand those ideas and their place in the society that produced it. — Bernard Williams

Disagreement does not necessarily have to be overcome. It may remain an important and constitutive feature of our relations to others and also be seen as something that is merely to be expected in the light of the best explanations we have of how such disagreement arises. — Bernard Williams

A friend is a lot of things, but a critic isn't. — Bernard Williams

Americans are optimists. They hope they'll be wealthy someday - and they're positive they can get one more brushful of paint out of an empty can. — Bernard Williams

If there's one theme in all my work, it's about authenticity and self-expression. It's the idea that some things are, in some real sense, really you - or express what you and others aren't. — Bernard Williams

'Humanity' is a name not merely for a species but also for a quality. — Bernard Williams

The truth is that we all have to do more things than we can rightly do, if we are to do anything at all. — Bernard Williams

The majority of philosophers are totally humorless. That's part of their trouble. — Bernard Williams

We must escape our illusions of correctness to understand the actions and beliefs of others. — Bernard Williams

We grow a little every time we do not take advantage of somebody's weakness. — Bernard Williams

Ideas are like wandering sons. They show up when you least expect them. — Bernard Williams

Life Lessons by Bernard Williams

1. Bernard Williams taught that life is full of difficult choices, and that it is important to make decisions based on our own values and beliefs, rather than simply following the crowd.
2. He also argued that our lives should be based on a sense of responsibility and commitment to our own projects and goals, rather than trying to please others.
3. Finally, he believed that it is important to be open to changing our views in light of new information and experiences, and to be willing to accept the consequences of our decisions.