The only knowledge that can truly orient action is knowledge that frees itself from mere human interests and is based in Ideas - in other words knowledge that has taken a theoretical attitude.

From a moral point of view, there is no excuse for terrorist acts, regardless of the motive or the situation under which they are carried out.

Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems.

The task of universal pragmatics is to identify and reconstruct universal conditions of possible mutual understanding.

The speaker must choose a comprehensible expression so that speaker and hearer can understand one another.

Each murder is one too many.

Reaching and understanding is the process of bringing about an agreement on the presupposed basis of validity claims that are mutually recognized.

One never really knows who one's enemy is.

I shall develop the thesis that anyone acting communicatively must, in performing any speech act, raise universal validity claims and suppose that they can be vindicated.

Today's Islamic fundamentalism is also a cover for political motifs. We should not overlook the political motifs we encounter in forms of religious fanaticism

Since our complex societies are highly susceptible to interferences and accidents, they certainly offer ideal opportunities for a prompt disruption of normal activities.

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities

It was something of a personal challenge for me to come up with a business suitable for the Internet world and the Internet age.

You don't stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you stop laughing.

My father always said, 'Never trust anyone whose TV is bigger than their book shelf' - so I make sure I read.

I wrote a whole novel before The Beach. Unpublishable. Junk. But, for some reason I stuck at novels and wrote a second. Still not sure why I didn't give up. Stubborn, maybe.

The charnel ground is that great graveyard in which the complexities of samsara and nirvana lie buried.

Being weak is a choice, so is being strong.

Love will put a spring in your step and a bounce in your heart.

Great leaders don't see themselves as great; they see themselves as human.