We have to gamble, and sometimes lose as George Ainslie argues; this keeps the appetite for life sharp.

The Epicureans denied that the gods had created the world and also denied that they played any role in it.

The higher the coefficient of inequality (Gini coefficient) in a society, the worse things tend to be for those at the bottom.

I have to say that some philosophers such as the late Bernard Williams, and I would include myself in this group, would say that tranquillity is overrated as the goal of life.

'Contract' succeeded 'status' as the basic organising principle in modern political vs. ancient society.

Atomism had no absolute 'above' and 'below' and no such rulers, so favoured the undersranding of justice as an agreement amongst equals.

Epicurus thought of justice as an agreement to prevent people harming and being harmed.

Epicurus was not at all interested in what we would call the problems of mass society, and he thought civic politics was just trouble and to be avoided by the wise.

Claims like 'Slavery is wrong' are not fully common-sensical, so they must be at least partly theoretical.

The (atomic) soul is mortal, and the best life is the one with the least pain and the most pleasure.

I think we do have a better understanding now of how moral thought and discourse function.

My films are of paramount importance to me, the same as my family. That's not going to change. This is a balance I have to strike throughout my life.

It's the federal government's job to secure the border.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.

I am very interested in people trying to write because I don't have a big academic background at all.

There's just not a lot of guys around playing like that these days; a lot of steel players are plugging into stomp boxes, trying to sound like Jeff Beck on a steel guitar.

We are all a mess of contradictions; some of our traits work for us, some against us.

The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent. [Lat., Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.]

I work in three shades of black.

In the midst of life we are in death, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection.

None but blockheads copy each other.