Cooking can be rewarding when it is a choice and no longer the onerous duty of the housewife, and when a dishwasher can lighten the load at the other end of the process.

Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right.

Waiting is so unusual that many of us can't stand in a queue for 30 seconds without getting out our phones to check for messages or to Google something.

The greatest moral failing is to condemn something as a moral failing: no vice is worse than being judgmental.

I don't think anyone who genuinely embraced sincerity, charity and modesty could be intolerant or divisive.

You don't choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.

Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That's why economics is not the dismal science, it's no science at all.

Being able and willing to complain is what makes us rational and moral animals, capable of seeing and articulating the difference between how things are and how they should be.

Love is indeed at root the product of the firings of neurons and release of hormones.

It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim "never say never" is one of the most important in ethics.

Dover's cliffs call to mind the Roman invasion; the Battle of Britain; our proximity to, yet difference from, mainland Europe; and international trade and exploration, both fair and exploitative.

When we love the stars light up, the wrong becomes undone. Naturally, my soul surrenders.

the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.

The future comes like an unwelcome guest.

Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

If you are content with yourself, you'll stop taking those little steps forward and begin taking big steps backward.

I meant exactly what I said: that we are saddled with a culture that hasn't advanced as far as science.

How does a sesame seed stick to a bun? That's magical. There must be some sesame seed glue out there. Either that or they're adhesive on one side. Peel off the backing, place it on the bun.

Every madman considers everyone else a madman.

Young artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to pave their way to Literature.

In Syria, if [Bashar al-] Assad had just been a statesman and handed over the reigns in time, Syria would not be heading down the nightmare that it is today.