“Well, we haven’t learnt yet to live together peacefully… But I don’t know what progress really means. Anyway, I think we need to have faith in the fact that there is more out there to be explained. Even the paradigms that we now have, including subjective value theory, for example, are only provisional. Some physicist might believe that ultimately, we will be able to explain everything. To me, that is utterly stupid, just like saying that an atheist is equally dogmatic as a Texas Baptist. It seems to me that, if you accept evolution, you can still not expect your dog to get up and start talking German. And that’s because your dog is not genetically programmed to do that. We are human animals, and we are equally bound. There are whole realms of discourse out there that we cannot reach, by definition. There are always going to be limits beyond which we cannot go. Knowing that they are there, you can always hope to move a little closer – but that’s all.”

—  James M. Buchanan

Source: Karen Ilse Horn (ed.) Roads to Wisdom, Conversations With Ten Nobel Laureates in Economics (2009)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Well, we haven’t learnt yet to live together peacefully… But I don’t know what progress really means. Anyway, I think w…" by James M. Buchanan?
James M. Buchanan photo
James M. Buchanan5
American economist 1919–2013

Related quotes

Mukesh Ambani photo

“We have not invested well in marketing ourselves. It is partly because of my trait. I believe that if my conviction is right, I will not need to go and explain myself to anyone. I believed that ultimately everyone will figure out what you are. We are changing this approach.”

Mukesh Ambani (1957) Indian business magnate

Mukesh Ambani on retail and SEZ plans

Angelina Jolie photo

“You'd think, 'What if I make a mistake today, I'll regret it'. I don’t believe in regret, I feel everything leads us to where we are and we have to just jump forward, mean well, commit and just see what happens.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

Nathan Seiberg photo

“Ultimately, we hope to find a fundamental theory that explains everything with no input parameters.”

Nathan Seiberg (1956) American physicist

[Where Is Fundamental Physics Headed? (public talk), 2014, https://www.sns.ias.edu/sites/default/files/Where%20is%20Fundamental%20Physics%20Heading%20Public.pdf]

Rich Mullins photo

“I think, you know, the thing everybody really wants to know anyway is not what the theory of relativity is, but I think what we all really want to know anyways, is whether we're loved or not.”

Rich Mullins (1955–1997) American christian musician

Wheaton, Illinois http://www.kidbrothers.net/words/concert-transcripts/wheaton-illinois-sep1590-backup-copy.html (April 11, 1997) <br class="br">In Concert

Haruki Murakami photo

“I think what Kafka does is give a purely mechanical explanation of that complex machine in the story, as sort of a substitute for explaining the situation we're in. What I mean is … " I have to give it some more thought. "What I mean is, that's his own device for explaining the kind of lives we lead. Not by talking about our situation, but by talking about the details of the machine.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002), Chapter Seven, Kafka Tamura

Courtney B. Vance photo

“I don’t think there is a secret. We definitely didn’t find it. We discovered that it’s work. But we already knew that. It was very fun to actually walk through our time together and see the timeline presented. When we started the process, we didn’t really think we had a book. But in that sense, it was fun to actually have someone to walk us through so that we didn’t have to try to put a framework to it since we didn’t know what the framework was. But from talking to [co-author Hilary Beard] together and individually, she was able to say, “This is actually a book.” We didn’t start out to write a 300-page book. We started out with something much simpler and it morphed into that. It was fun to be able to talk about our journey together, because that’s what it is, it is a journey.”

Courtney B. Vance (1960) American actor

Courtney B. Vance on Battling The Mummy and the Secret to a Lasting Hollywood Marriage https://parade.com/575448/walterscott/courtney-b-vance-on-battling-the-mummy-and-the-secret-to-a-lasting-hollywood-marriage/ (June 2, 2017)

Aron Ra photo

“Each of my science books said, “This is why we think this; this is how we figured it out; and this is what we still don’t know.” That I can trust. And it inspires me to contribute. Conversely, religious books claim to already know everything we’ll ever need to know, even thought they never explained everything; and you’re forbidden to question them. Instead, you should believe them without suspicion and simply because they said so (even when they have already been proven wrong). This is why the word ‘confidence man’ describes a criminal swindler. Such people should not be trusted. When is it ever wise to believe someone without question?”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Youtube, Other, Faith is not a virtue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDal8b6-X5o (June 20, 2012)

Joan Didion photo

“We imagined we knew everything the other thought, even when we did not necessarily want to know it, but in fact, I have come to see, we knew not the smallest fraction of what there was to know.”

Joan Didion The Year of Magical Thinking

Source: The Year of Magical Thinking

Victor Villaseñor photo

““Marina,” I said, “I don’t know how to explain this, but … well, everything I say or do or even think just doesn’t seem to work out for me. Except when I’m totally alone.” I almost added, “Totally alone with God,” but I didn’t because I knew how crazyloco this might sound, especially since I wasn’t a priest or a monk.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

Cory Booker photo

“I want to try to live my own values as consciously and purposefully as I can. Being vegan for me is a cleaner way of not participating in practices that don’t align with my values. … As soon as I said publicly that I was trying this experiment, so many vegans out there, hundreds and hundreds of people, have been reaching out to me with incredible support and encouragement as well as practical tips of how to do this without having to sacrifice that much in terms of the food and what I like. I've discovered some really delicious things—recipes, stores, and restaurants—that have made this transition far easier. … There's too much judgment out there. Really what we need to be doing is just all of us finding our own paths towards living the best lives we can live as clearly and boldly in accordance with our own personal values.”

Cory Booker (1969) 35th Class 2 senator for New Jersey in U.S. Congress

&quot; Talking Tofurky With Newly Vegan Cory Booker http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/26/talking-tofurky-with-newly-vegan-cory-booker.html&quot;, interview with Vlad Chituc, in The Daily Beast (26 November 2014) <br class="br">2014

Related topics