Materialism is incomplete even as a theory of the physical world, since the physical world includes conscious organisms among its most striking occup…

- Thomas Nagel

Life may be not only meaningless but absurd.

- Thomas Nagel

Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.

- Thomas Nagel

If sub specie aeternitatis [from eternity's point of view] there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that does not matter either, and…

- Thomas Nagel

The point is... to live one's life in the full complexity of what one is, which is something much darker, more contradictory, more of a maelstrom of …

- Thomas Nagel

What is it like to be a bat? What is it like for a bat to be a bat?

- Thomas Nagel

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

- Thomas Nagel

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.

- Thomas Nagel

We are an episode between two oblivions.

- Thomas Nagel