To believe something in the face of evidence and against reason - to believe something by faith - is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant, and merits the opposite of respect.

A human lifespan is less than a thousand months long. You need to make some time to think how to live it.

To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.

Religion and science have a common ancestor - ignorance.

If there is anything worth fearing in the world, it is living in such a way that gives one cause for regret in the end.

Humanism is the philosophy that you should be a good guest at the dinner table of life.

Religions survive mainly because they brainwash the young.

Look at the blogosphere - the biggest lavatory wall in the universe, a palimpsest of graffiti and execration.

Try lighting your house by prayer instead of electricity and see which one works.

And I say, the meaning of life is what you make it. There will be as many different meaningful lives as there are people to live them.

It takes a certain ingenuous faith - but I have it - to believe that people who read and reflect more likely than not come to judge things with liberality and truth.

Each moment spent in prayer is like a coin put into a bank account

The American Dream is that any man or woman, despite of his or her background, can change their circumstances and rise as high as they are willing to work.

I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We should be careful indeed what we say.

I always have trouble remembering three things: faces, names, and - I can't remember what the third thing is.

There are plenty of problems in the world, many of them interconnected. But there is no problem which compares with this central, universal problem of saving the human race from extinction

There is nothing enduring in the life of a woman except what she builds in a man's heart.

After college I funded my short films with acting roles in film and TV. I learned my craft through the great opportunities British television gave me as a director.

Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotch man happy!

Certainly coming to America has been extraordinary.