| |
Reviews: "A joy to read, yielding both wisdom and delight in perfectly sized portions. A trip to the supermarket will never be the same again."
- Professor Richard Schoch, Queen Mary, University of London, author of The Secrets of Happiness
"How refreshing...an antidote to those happiness gurus who peddle off-the-shelf recipes for the good life."
- Claire Fox, Director, Institute of Ideas, and panellist on BBC Radio’s The Moral Maze
Description: In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the supercomputer Deep Thought pronounces 42 as the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. Three decades after the publication of this iconic book, acclaimed philosopher Mark Vernon returns to the truth behind this infamous utterance...
Drawing his inspiration from 42 of the funniest, wisest, and quirkiest quotations on the big questions in life, Vernon offers a light-hearted look at what philosophy has to say about life, the Universe, and everything. Deftly interweaving the thoughts of the greatest minds of all time, from Socrates to Monty Python, Vernon provides a platter of witty yet profound discussions of work, love, eternal life, sex, and happiness. From the allure of cats to the nature of wisdom, this rip-roaring read is the perfect companion for the armchair philosopher, and proves that even a little introspection can transform our lives for the better!
Contents: The Happy Life • Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. – John Stuart Mill • All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects. – Aldous Huxley • Where ignorance is bliss, ‘Tis folly to be wise’. – Thomas Gray • Things can only get better. – Political slogan • Man’s unhappiness springs from one thing alone, his incapacity to stay quietly in one room. – Blaise Pascal • The thinker philosophises as the lover does. – William James • The Everyday Life • As for sex, it is the rubbing together of pieces of gut, followed by the spasmodic secretion of a little bit of slime. – Marcus Aurelius • Photography is truth. Cinema is truth at twenty-four times per second. – Jean-Luc Godard • The innocent sleep – Macbeth • They say travel broadens the mind; but you must have the mind – G K Chesterton • Grub first, then ethics – Bertolt Brecht • We do not look in great cities for out best morality. – Jane Austen • One cat always leads to another – Ernest Hemingway • Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from themselves – Nietzsche • The Working Life • Let’s go to work – From Quentin Tarantion’s Reservoir Dogs • Freedom and slavery are mental states – Gandhi • Money can’t buy you happiness but it does buy a more pleasant from of misery – Spike Milligan • You must want nothing if you wish to challenge Jupiter, who himself wants nothing. – Seneca • The soul is the prison of the body. – Michel Foucault • The Social Life • The desire for friendship comes quickly. Friendship does not. – Aristotle • Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you. – Confucius • A Gift is something that you cannot be thankful for – Jacques Derrida • Our friend’s electric! – After the title of a Gary Numan song • Love is blind – Anon • The Greener Life • God Almighty first planted a garden – Francis Bacon • Growth for the sake of growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell. – Edward Abbey • A good piece of technology dreams of the day when it will be replaced by a newer piece of technology. – Douglas Coupland • Nature favours those organisms which leave the environment in better shape for their progeny to survive. – James Lovelock • The Examined Life • For our discussion is about no ordinary matter but on the right way to conduct our lives. – Plato • You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Gandhi • Seize the day! – Horace • Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. – David Hume • The unexamined life is not worth living. – Socrates • A person’s character is their fate. – Heraclitus • "Know thyself?" If I knew myself, I’d run away. – Goethe • Tell the truth but tell it slant. Success in circuit lies. – Emily Dickinson • Crowd: ‘Yes, we are all individuals!’ Individual in crowd: I’m not – Monty Python’s Life of Brian • In wonder all philosophy began. In wonder it ends. – Coleridge • The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. – James Branch Cabell • Do I feel Lucky? Well, do ya, punk? – Callahan in Dirty Harry • I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work…I want to achieve it through not dying. – Woody Allen • Truth rests with God alone and a little bit with me. – Yiddish proverbISBN - 9781851685608
|
| |
Pages : 190
|