How much vanity must be concealed – not too effectively at that – in order to pretend that one is the personal object of a divine plan?

Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.

Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.

To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.

[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.

[T]o believe in a god is in one way to express a willingness to believe in anything. Whereas to reject the belief is by no means to profess belief in nothing.

We are bodies, sometimes with dreams and always with desires.

Wear a belt! It's an easy way to pull together your outfit. Just be sure to match it to your shoes.

We love displays and symbols and stuff that quickly and silently tells the world who we are. Better yet, we love visual reminders of who we want to be.

if i repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. what demon possessed me that i behaved so well?

I would give all I possess to get out of myself; but somehow, at the end, I find myself so vastly more interesting than nine tenths of the people I meet.

If you are prepared to accept the consequences of your dreams then you must still regard America today with the same naive enthusiasm as the generations that discovered the New World.

One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem, and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

Pilot season tends to be grueling, because you can be thrown all of these auditions at once - last-minute, always - and you're going on three a day, especially back in the day.

The next worse thing to a battle lost is a battle won.

People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and defy the clamor of the multitude are not fit to be ministers in time of difficulty.