I retain what's interesting to me, but I don't have a lot of strategic depth.

If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world.

Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.

Religion is poison because it asks us to give up our most precious faculty, which is that of reason, and to believe things without evidence. It then asks us to respect this, which it calls faith.

Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.

Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments.

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

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

The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has—from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness.

When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person that walked in. That's what the storm is all about.

[Iranians] are a sponsor of terrorism around the world and we have to address that.

It's horrible getting older. I mean, it's wonderful because you see the circles of life get completed. But it's horrible losing your looks.

It's really important in any historical fiction, I think, to anchor the story in its time. And you do that by weaving in those details, by, believe it or not, by the plumbing.

If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.

I personally subscribe to the belief that normal is just a setting on the dryer.

It is our task-our essential, central, crucial task-to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures.

deep down I believe my year was a special year: it produced me.

Wisdom is one of the few things in human life that does not diminish with age.

They say that there can never be two snowflakes that are exactly alike, but has anyone checked lately?