For what is philosophy but an art - one more attempt to give "significant form" to the chaos of experience?

[V]irtue is not news, and virtuous men, like happy nations, have no history.

[I]ndeed, one hears, in early Christian theology, as many echoes of Persian dualism as of Hebrew Puritanism or Greek philosophy.

[S]hame is a child of custom rather than of nature.

There are not many things finer in our murderous species than this noble curiosity, this restless and reckless passion to understand.

[R]eligion arises not out of sacerdotal invention or chicanery, but out of the persistent wonder, fear, insecurity, hopefulness and loneliness of man.

Fear of death, wonder at the causes of chance events or unintelligible happenings, hope for divine aid and gratitude for good fortune, cooperated to generate religious belief.

All science is a charted ignorance and belongs to Maya.

But a mother-son relationship is not a coequal one, is it? He is lonely with only you just as you are lonely with only him.

A book is not complete until it’s read

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

When asked to borrow money: "I'll see what my lawyer says. . . . And if he says yes I'll get another lawyer."

There is no longer a doubt that women are just as competent as men. Gender differences are guided by nurture, as society treats boys and girls differently from an early age.

You can't have my heart, the doctor told me I'd be dead without it.

It was frightening because it was the first time I had gotten a sense of how serious the problem was. It became clear from his notes that he felt the president himself was involved.

I have no trouble publishing in Soviet astrophysical journals, but my work is unacceptable to the American astrophysical journals.

I think Republicans really need to be disciplined, to stay focused on sustained economic growth.

Sometimes I get more of a mainstream crowd that just is not moving to what I'm playing. I have to have crossover secret weapons.