Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.

No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.

After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.

Nothing is more deceitful, " said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.

Say what is true, although it may be bitter and displeasing to people

As Irving Good realised in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a 'singularity.'

For the world is only governed by self-interest.

If you can mentally see the end of the journey, then your body will physically find a way to achieve that goal.

I can never predict my future because a big part of my future is already behind me.

Whoever has a spiritual gift and compassionate toward one who does not have it guards his gift through his compassion. But whoever is proud of his gift loses it through self-opinion.

I'll play it first and figure out what it's called later.

If I have not been exposed and am not in any danger of pursuit. But I have been exposed, I am pursued - by myself! That is a pursuer that does not readily let go.