Today's Islamic fundamentalism is also a cover for political motifs. We should not overlook the political motifs we encounter in forms of religious fanaticism

From a moral point of view, there is no excuse for terrorist acts, regardless of the motive or the situation under which they are carried out.

The only knowledge that can truly orient action is knowledge that frees itself from mere human interests and is based in Ideas - in other words knowledge that has taken a theoretical attitude.

Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems.

The task of universal pragmatics is to identify and reconstruct universal conditions of possible mutual understanding.

The speaker must choose a comprehensible expression so that speaker and hearer can understand one another.

Each murder is one too many.

Reaching and understanding is the process of bringing about an agreement on the presupposed basis of validity claims that are mutually recognized.

One never really knows who one's enemy is.

I shall develop the thesis that anyone acting communicatively must, in performing any speech act, raise universal validity claims and suppose that they can be vindicated.

Since our complex societies are highly susceptible to interferences and accidents, they certainly offer ideal opportunities for a prompt disruption of normal activities.

When you initially forgive, it is like letting go of a hot iron. There is initial pain and the scars will show, but you can start living again.

I didn't want to feel like I was mimicking or copying someone else's performance, whether it's subconscious or not.

...Mama used to say that when you don't know what to do, do nothing. She meant you can try too hard to solve a problem. If you give it a little time, the answer might just come to you plain as day.

How can we expect something positive to come from all the negative that we put into this world?

The highest condition of the religious sentiment is when. . . the worshiper not only sees God everywhere, but sees nothing which is not full of God.

The purpose of writing is to make your mother and father drop dead with shame.

One of the most powerful forms of information is feedback on our own actions.

I got interested in the justice system. If I was, I'd probably be a defense lawyer. I was headed that way, but luckily changed my track to film school.

I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about.

Someday is someday, and maybe it will be or maybe it won't. This is a human thing, to worry about things that may or may not come to be. You can't eat meat until you've killed it.