No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine. — A.J. Ayer Authority Copy Share Image
Bertrand Russell would not have wished to be called a saint of any description; but he was a great and good man. — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
We shall maintain that no statement which refers to a 'reality'transcending the limits of all possible sense- experience can possibly have any… — A.J. Ayer Limits Copy Share Image
I saw a Divine Being. I'm afraid I'm going to have to revise all my various books and opinions. — A.J. Ayer Book Copy Share Image
There is philosophy, which is about conceptual analysis - about the meaning of what we say - and there is all of… — A.J. Ayer Analysis Copy Share Image
We say that a sentence is factually significant to any given person, if, and only if, he knows how to verify the… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
While moral rules may be propounded by authority the fact that these were so propounded would not validate them. — A.J. Ayer Authority Copy Share Image
The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most… — A.J. Ayer Abstract Copy Share Image
Theism is so confused and the sentences in which "God" appears so incoherent and so incapable of verifiability or falsifiability that to… — A.J. Ayer Atheism Copy Share Image
There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
If 'god' is a metaphysical term, then it cannot be even probable that a god exists. For to say that 'God exists'… — A.J. Ayer Atheism Copy Share Image
The only possible basis for a sound morality is mutual tolerance and respect: tolerance of one another’s customs and opinions; respect for… — A.J. Ayer Awareness Copy Share Image
The fact that people have religious experiences is interesting from the psychological point of view, but it does not in any way… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
If one takes full account of the persecution of heretics, the frequency and savagery of the religious wars which Christianity had endangered,… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
I do not believe in God. It seems to me that theists of all kinds have very largely failed to make their… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
It is possible to be a meta-physician without believing in a transcendent reality; for we shall see that many metaphysical utterances are… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end them… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
In other words, the propositions of philosophy are not factual, but linguistic in character - that is, they do not describe the… — A.J. Ayer Behaviour Copy Share Image
A prevalent fallacy is the assumption that a proof of an afterlife would also be a proof of the existence of a… — A.J. Ayer Afterlife Copy Share Image
To make our position clearer, we may formulate it in another way. Let us call a proposition which records an actual or… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
It is time, therefore, to abandon the superstition that natural science cannot be regarded as logically respectable until philosophers have solved the… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
The principles of logic and mathematics are true universally simply because we never allow them to be anything else. And the reason… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
“What is not so generally recognized is that there can be no way of proving that the existence of a god, such… — A.J. Ayer Christianity Copy Share Image
“To predict tomorrow's weather, I need not take into account the state of mind of the Emperor of Manchukuo.” — A.J. Ayer State of mind Copy Share Image
I take it, therefore, to be a fact, that one's existence ends with death. I think it possible to show how this… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
It appears, then, that ethics, as a branch of knowledge, is nothing more than a department of psychologyand sociology. — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
It seems that I have spent my entire life trying to make life more rational and that it was all wasted effort. — A.J. Ayer Effort Copy Share Image
But if science may be said to be blind without philosophy, it is true also that philosophy is virtually empty without science. — A.J. Ayer Blind Copy Share Image
I suddenly stopped and looked out at the sea and thought, my God, how beautiful this is ... for 26 years I… — A.J. Ayer Beautiful Copy Share Image
The misfortunes which God is represented in the book of Job as allowing Satan to inflict on Job, merely to test his… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
If the assertion that there is a god is nonsensical, then the atheist's assertion that there is no god is equally nonsensical,… — A.J. Ayer Copy Share Image
