Michel Onfray Quotes & Sayings

“I am a sworn atheist and therefore from my point of view the Talmud or the Koran don't constitute works of political philosophy but rather writings that stand in utter contradiction to concepts like logic, freedom, feminism, secularism, brotherhood - which are my ideals.”

“Socialists find me too far left; Trotskyites not far enough; ecologists say I am too happy eating foie gras, defending nuclear energy and GM plants; feminists find I am not enough of a woman; anarchists a petit-bourgeois who has sold out because I believe in universal suffrage.”

“For the establishment, philosophy is both an elitist and an idealist discipline: In high school, it is a compulsory subject; at university, they teach the idealist line. They are conducting a conversation with themselves.”

“Religion is like magic. It is all about tricks.”

“Camus believed in dialogue and diplomacy, and enlisted his work as a philosopher to the need to find nonviolent solutions, whereas Sartre called for violent conflicts and justified terror.”

“If we include hedonistic philosophy in hospitals, the lives of patients suffering from cancer would be much, much better.”

“God is a fiction invented by people so they do not have to face the reality of their condition.”

“I believe in libertarian options because they allow an interesting management of the capital and are based on co-operation, reciprocity, contract, federation.”

“It's hard for me to imagine a philosopher disconnected from the world, indifferent to the cares of his country, unmoved by poverty, unemployment: I am a committed citizen.”

“I discovered philosophy in my youth when I read 'wildly,' and thus I was exposed to the world of ideas.”