Raymond Smullyan Quotations

Why should I be worried about dying? It's not going to happen in my lifetime!

Some people are always critical of vague statements. I tend rather to be critical of precise statements; they are the only ones which can correctly be labeled wrong.

Humor could not flourish in a wholly serious and rational atmosphere.

Why should I be worried about death?...

Because I have been a magician for many years, people have often asked me whether I ever have sawn a woman in half. I reply, Oh, yes I've sawn over seventy women in half in my lifetime, and I'm learning the second half of the trick now.

Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is that I'm a Gemini.

There is nothing like a naturalistic orientation to dispel all these morbid thoughts of "sin" and "free will" and "moral responsibility.

Why do I act as I do? To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea why. It is simply my nature to act as I act, and that's all I can say.

All my life I have been intensely repelled by the idea of 'making an effort'. I hate this idea today as much as I did as a child. I don't know why I hate it so much; I just do.

Metaphysical problems about "mind" versus "matter" arise only from epistemological confusions.

It has always puzzled me that so many people have taken it for granted that God favors those who believe in him. Isn't it possible that the actual God is a scientific God who has little patience with beliefs founded on faith rather than evidence?

I have free will, but not of my own choice. I have never freely chosen to have free will. I have to have free will, whether I like it or not!

I believe that either Jupiter has life or it doesn't. But I neither believe that it does, nor do I believe that it doesn't.