To treat others ethically is to act out of concern for their happiness and suffering.

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.

We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.

How we pay attention to the present moment...determin es the character of our experience and...the quality of our lives.

You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.

How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.

You don't get anything worth getting, by pretending to know things you don't know.

Jesus Christ—who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens—can now be eaten in the form of a cracker

The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn't, we will kill you.

where some god pissed a rain of reason to make things grow only to die,

Only in growth reform and change paradoxically enough is true security to be found.

Frankly, I'm mainly telling the story to myself. Thinking about audience is too daunting, and worst case, invites you to homogenize, to soften the hard edges of things.

If diplomacy has any chance to work, it must be coupled with a credible military threat.

And oh I want so much to sing, I tell myself no. But it is so hard to keep from singing.

Here is a very inexpensive costume idea. Wear a re-elect Obama button and go out as a journalist.

Significance is inherent in the human body.

My family is happy. That makes my job a lot easier. For the fans, I try to put it all out there on the floor.

I don't think about my old stuff. I just move forward.

God sees everything at once and knows what you are called to do. Our part is not to play God, but to trust God - to believe that our single, solitary life can make a difference