Many environmental questions are in a deep way philosophical, despite our penchant for treating them as if they were only technological, economic, or whatever.

In this era of globalization we are witnessing struggles within individual states about what their identity and interests consist in.

We live on a restless planet in a violent universe.

Apocalypses don't happen very often. They tend to be separated by tens or even hundreds of millions of years.

Since we're not very good at something as basic as controlling our reproduction, life is really bad for more people than ever before.

Moral revolutions are typically seen retrospectively. Prospectively, the revolutionaries tend to look like crazy people, and sometimes they are.

I take seriously the idea that we are African Apes who (at least for the moment) dominate the planet, but our psychology is pretty much what it was when we were living in small groups on the savanna.

One of the real dangers of our time is people's indifference to history.

Philosophers are smart, analytical, and skeptical. For these reasons they are relatively unbiased.

I'm a subjectivist about morality.

Ethics is prescriptive and can change behavior, but usually only at the margins.

In school, we learn that mistakes translate into bad grades. This unfortunate lesson gets burned into our brains, and we go through life shunning challenges that might end in failure.

Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating the mind is like a car battery - it recharges by running.

In terms of the films I make, I'm just more excited about it if I've written it. It's like living in a house that you've built rather than a rental.

I think it's very boring for a director to always do the same kind of movies.

I like when people take chances.

Nature never says one thing, Wisdom another. [Lat., Nunquam aliud Natura aliud Sapientia dicit.]

What else are our lives but a story we tell ourselves to find some sense in the pain ofliving?

It’s a rare man who is taken for what he truly is.

Though I love you like a brother, I would rather be your lover.

I was playing with pencils while the other girls were playing with dolls.