Strange bonds of trust and self-deception tend to grow between journalists and their subjects.

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.

We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.

How we pay attention to the present moment...determin es the character of our experience and...the quality of our lives.

You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.

How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.

You don't get anything worth getting, by pretending to know things you don't know.

Jesus Christ—who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens—can now be eaten in the form of a cracker

The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn't, we will kill you.

Pain is always emotional. Fear and depression keep constant company with chronic hurting.

Sometimes integrity is seen as a threat by those who desire control.

It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.

Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.

It is difficult to maintain the illusion that we are interpreting a Constitution, rather than inventing one.

Every original idea is first ridiculed, then vigorously attacked, and finally taken for granted.

If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?

You might be a redneck if someone tells you you have something in your teeth, and you take them out to see what it is.

I have the stardom glow.

As I review my life, I feel I must have missed the point, either then or now.