The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism.

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.

I determined to learn to pray so that my experience conforms to the words of Jesus rather than try to make his words conform to my impoverished experience.

You can never have 'equality' between two things that are not equal by definition. And so, for example, you can have equality among 'people', but not between 'men' and 'women'.

The closet is the best study. The commentators are good instructors, but the Author Himself is far better.

The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow- an Elf!

Once the Choice is Made, Do Not Look Back, Do Not Second-Guess Your Decisions

Those of us lucky enough to have a share of privilege in the more free societies should not be asking this question, but doing something to answer it.

Sightseeing was ... based on imaginative invention, like rehearsing your own play in stage sets from which all the actors had fled.

The birds that were singing in the dew-drenched garden seemed to be telling the flowers about her.

All our feelings, like the artist's paints and brush, are ways of communicating and sharing something meaningful from us to the world.

I've had many mentors, but the one that has the most impact was my mother.