Derek Parfit Quotes on Life
Derek Parfit was a British philosopher widely regarded as one of the most important moral philosophers of the late twentieth century. This page collects quotes attributed to Derek Parfit on the topic of life, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Personal identity is not what matters.”
Though everything is identical with itself, only I am me. -
Attributed to Derek Parfit:
“What is bad about my death is not that something happens to me, but that nothing more does.”
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“To be a person, a being must be self-conscious, aware of its identity and its continued existence over time.”
p. 202 -
“Is the truth depressing? Some may find it so. But I find it liberating, and consoling. When I believed that my existence was a further fact, I seemed imprisoned in myself. My life seemed like a glass tunnel, through which I was moving faster every year, and at the end of which there was darkness. When I changed my view, the walls of my glass tunnel disappeared. I now live in the open air. There is still a difference between my life and the lives of other people. But the difference is less. I am less concerned about the rest of my own life, and more concerned about the lives of others.”
p. 281