I've had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.

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.

If the lords of the underworld can't bring me out of this funk, no one can.

Once when he was still young, I saw a bit of his scalp showing through his hair and I was afraid. But it was just a cowlick. Now sometimes it shows through for real, but I feel only tenderness.

Take motherhood: nobody ever thought of putting it on a moral pedestal until some brash feminists pointed out, about a century ago, that the pay is lousy and the career ladder nonexistent.

Let shining Charity adorn your zeal, The noblest impulse generous minds can feel.

All government, all exercise of power, no matter in what form, which is not based in love and directed by knowledge, is a tyranny.

From my perspective it matters what we do, not what we say. It mattered that we got Bin Laden, not the name we called him.

Just because you didn't put a name to something did not mean it wasn't there.

Doing anything in Japan as a sort of architecture - related project is just fantastic because they do everything so perfectly and so quickly. It's unlike anywhere else in the world.

I eat vegetarian. I am just drawn to clean eating, and although I do not deprive myself of sweets or French fries once in a while, my body just feels better if I give it good fuel to work with.

Historical awareness is a kind of resurrection.