Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path.

There are things you break that can't be put back together again. And Kashmir may be one of them.

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms.

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.

Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.

‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.

In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.

Language upon a silvered tongue affords enchantment enough.

The whole story of migration and what that has done in interconnecting the planet is obviously something I've written about a lot.

faith without doubt is addiction

You want me to lie for you?" Aidan asked, watching

Hell was invented to scare to death the unruly human mind and bring it to obedience.

To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.

You women could make someone fall in love even with a lie.

Words are sexier than flesh.

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.

Self-government by the whole people is the teleologic idea. The republican form of government is the noblest and the best, as it is the latest.

A mechanical encounter or other energy-exchange may cause tissue damage.

By the time we get to church, I need church cuz I've been yelled at by everyone in the family.

Those who have compassion when they do battle will be victorious. Those who likewise defend themselves will be safe. Heaven will rescue and protect them with compassion.