Michel Onfray

By aiming for paradise, we lose sight of earth. Hope of a beyond and aspiration to an afterlife engender a sense of futility in the present. If the prospect of getting taken up to paradise generates joy, it is the mindless joy of a baby picked up from his crib.

We are fashioned not by our genes, but by our environment - by the family and socio-historic conditions in which we evolve.

Death is a false fear. When it is here, you won't be. When it's not, you are here.

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.