To become a stoic is to endorse the truthfulness of its world view and accept its prescription for how you ought to live, not just to like how it makes you feel.

Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right.

Waiting is so unusual that many of us can't stand in a queue for 30 seconds without getting out our phones to check for messages or to Google something.

The greatest moral failing is to condemn something as a moral failing: no vice is worse than being judgmental.

I don't think anyone who genuinely embraced sincerity, charity and modesty could be intolerant or divisive.

You don't choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.

Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That's why economics is not the dismal science, it's no science at all.

Being able and willing to complain is what makes us rational and moral animals, capable of seeing and articulating the difference between how things are and how they should be.

Love is indeed at root the product of the firings of neurons and release of hormones.

It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim "never say never" is one of the most important in ethics.

Dover's cliffs call to mind the Roman invasion; the Battle of Britain; our proximity to, yet difference from, mainland Europe; and international trade and exploration, both fair and exploitative.

Don’t you dare focus your energy on the 99 reasons something can’t be done. Focus on the one thing you can do and the 99 won’t matter.

Just knowing that you are there and you would be thinking about me while I am thinking about you makes my heart feel serene and contented.

As an author, I want to write what I’m inspired to write. Not what my readers want me to write. I feel like the books will ultimately be better if my heart is fully into what I’m writing.

I have no news of my coming or passing away--the whole thing happened quicker than a breath

Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.

I always want more, and that's just my life.

The last thing I would attempt to do is to buy clothes for a child I didn't know well.

The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us are going to the stars.

Now more than ever, America needs an agenda for real change.

What's good for me is certainly not good for other people.