The question of identity has separated from the issue of 'assimilation', having lost much of its drama and become, so to speak, a secular problem.

You judge a society by the decency of living of the weakest

Power, in a nutshell, is the ability to get things done, and politics is the ability to decide which things need to be done.

Unlike 'real relationships', 'virtual relationships' are easy to enter and to exit. They look smart and clean, feel easy to use, when compared with the heavy, slow-moving, messy real stuff.

Questioning the ostensibly unquestionable premises of our way of life is arguably the most urgent of services we owe our fellow humans and ourselves.

For one to be free there must be at least two.

You are a stranger, I am a stranger, we all remain strangers, and nevertheless we can like or even love each other.

The rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers.

We belong to talking, not what talking is about... Stop talking - and you are out. Silence equals exclusion.

The task for sociology is to come to the help of the individual. We have to be in service of freedom. It is something we have lost sight of.

The value of other people is that they have something unique to offer.

The key to wisdom is silent observation and reflection.

I will wait for youNo matter where you areI won't get lostEven if something happensI'll be here loving youAs long as you're thereAs long as you still don't have... Someone else

A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would necessarily cease to weigh upon us so heavily.

The bestway to diffuse an argument is to listen first, second, and last.

Life is mostly just learning how to lose.

Sometimes you watch comedians and feel like they're jerking off in front of you, but they want you to see how big it is.

I have always loved maps.

We human beings grow through our failures, not our virtues.

I worry a little bit about - quote - "regime change." We haven't had a great deal of success with that in years. That's just really difficult.

Mathematically speaking, it seems impossible that there isn't life out our planet. If you flick on the news, it certainly seems like we have aliens among us.