QuoteProject
As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive.
Daniel Dennett
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Panic can lead to irrational decisions, especially in high-pressure situations.

This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining composure in stressful circumstances. Panic can cloud judgment and lead to detrimental actions, particularly in situations like scuba diving where calmness is crucial for safety. It serves as a reminder that facing difficult situations with a steady mind is essential for effective problem-solving.

Themes

PanicScuba DivingCalmnessJudgmentStress

In practice

Example use cases

A motivational speaker might use this quote to discuss stress management techniques.

More from Daniel Dennett

We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.
Daniel DennettRead
Philosophers are never quite sure what they are talking about - about what the issues really are - and so often it takes them rather a long time to recognize that someone with a somewhat different approach (or destination, or starting point) is making a contribution.
Daniel DennettRead
Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.
Daniel DennettRead
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
Daniel DennettRead
Some philosophers can't bear to say simple things, like "Suppose a dog bites a man." They feel obliged instead to say, "Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t," thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don't go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t.
Daniel DennettRead
If the concept of consciousness were to fall to science, what would happen to our sense of moral agency and free will? If conscious experience were reduced somehow to mere matter in motion, what would happen to our appreciation of love and pain and dreams and joy? If conscious human beings were just animated material objects, how could anything we do to them be right or wrong?
Daniel DennettRead

Similar quotes

I used to be told if I talked about my sexuality in any way that we wouldn't have a tennis tour.
Billie Jean KingRead
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind... The time is always right to do the right thing. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences.
Stanley A. McchrystalRead
I'm an athlete, yes, but I'm also a woman. I'm someone who kind of, in a way, lost touch with that part of myself after I lost my legs, because there are certain feminine traits you lose when you have prosthetic legs.
Amy PurdyRead
So many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren't always happy things happening to me or around me. But when you look at the core of goodness within yourself - at the optimism and hope - you realize it comes from the environment you grew up in.
Sonia SotomayorRead
A lot of the media says, 'oh, black musician converts X-number of Klansmen.' I never converted one. But over 200 have left that, the white supremacy movements, because I have been the impetus for that.
Daryl DavisRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Daniel Dennett | QuoteProject