Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality. Morality is not bribery or threats. Religion is bribery and threats. Humans have morality. We don't need religion.
Penn Jillette
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
Penn Jillette
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: March 5
Actor
Circus Performer
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Illusionist
Jongleur
Magician
Musician
Novelist
Podcaster
Radio Personality
Greenfield
Massachusetts
Penn Fraser Jillette
Hope
Threats
Fear
Morally
Humans
Reward
Need
Punishment
Needs
Rewards
Threat
Morality
Bribery
Religion
Behaving
More quotes by Penn Jillette
Cars mean nothing to me. I'm not a car guy.
Penn Jillette
Whereas you have someone like Houdini, who works really, really hard to get really, really famous, and then has actual intellectual ideas that he puts into the culture that stay there.
Penn Jillette
Twelve magicians and two carnies have been shot dead doing the bullet catch. That's cool enough, but every night when we close our show with that trick and the loaded gun gets pointed in my face, it goes so far beyond cool. All I can think is 12 magicians, two carnies.
Penn Jillette
You have in Vegas the most heterogeneous audience you're gonna get anywhere in the country. In Boston, Chicago, Miami, you know who goes to the theater. In Vegas, you have people who only see one theater show a year, and it's in Vegas.
Penn Jillette
If you spend a lot of time lying to people, you think a lot about what the truth means.
Penn Jillette
It's only the losers named Dave that think having an unusual name is bad, and who cares what they think. They're named Dave.
Penn Jillette
There is this tremendous amount of arrogance and hubris, where somebody can look at something for five minutes and dismiss it. Whether you talk about gaming or 20th century classical music, you can't do it in five minutes. You can't listen to 'The Rite of Spring' once and understand what Stravinsky was all about.
Penn Jillette
To drive a car in rural America is freedom. Before I had a car, I'd never seen a rock and roll show, I'd never seen a comic or a show.
Penn Jillette
The Tea Party claims to want small government.
Penn Jillette
Technology is run by sex, because it's very important to people, both technology and sex.
Penn Jillette
That's the beauty of the Web: You can roll around in a stranger's obsession without having to smell his or her house. You can amscray whenever you want without being rude. The site gets its hit and you know more about our species' diversity.
Penn Jillette
I'm not bothered by the idea of getting old, or I guess you could say by having arrived at old. I was 10 when my mom turned 55. For 1955, she was a very old mom.
Penn Jillette
When someone is trying to interpret something for you, they always have an agenda.
Penn Jillette
Mentally ill people come from all belief systems.
Penn Jillette
Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, 'Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not?' But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision.
Penn Jillette
'Zolten' is a common Hungarian name, it's my wife's maiden name and most importantly, it's the name of Dracula's dog.
Penn Jillette
I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.
Penn Jillette
A lot of people, to attack an outspoken atheist, one of the things they'll do is say, 'You are as bad as the fundamentalist Christians.' And my answer is always, 'I hope so.'
Penn Jillette
I didn't learn fire-eating to conquer my fears. I learned fire-eating because I desperately wanted to be in show business.
Penn Jillette
I think one of the things about Donald Trump that's interesting is he lives in a rarified atmosphere where it's possible that he doesn't get enough feedback, enough people rolling their eyes at him. It's a danger more in show business than it is with wealth.
Penn Jillette