Whether all is really lost or not depends entirely on whether or not I am lost.

It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it.

Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.

Nothing is more powerful than individuals acting out of their own conscience.

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly.

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed, and one thoughtless word can provoke an utterly nonsensical furor.

We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.

There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.

My mother said, "kiss him, darling, it's easy so natural" and I thought to myself, not with lips of stone, dear mother, not with lips of stone

I think if we open ourselves to all different kinds of men and all groups, we find a lot more opportunities to love.

People like Mr. Hitchens are ready to fight to the last drop of other people's blood, and it's utterly and completely contemptible.

[My parents] were very interested in social justice issues, and there was a time, very early on, where my mother, I think, actually went to some demonstrations for integrating housing.

It's just plain learning something that you didn't know. There is a real aesthetic experience in being dumbfounded.

The city, no matter how small, is corrupt and unrepentant, while the sun shines brighter in the country, making people more wholesome.

How many million more souls are to pass into eternity without having heard the name of Jesus?

I think things evolve into jokes. I don't generally write them down as jokes. I talk them out.

It's nice to get paid for therapy rather than having to pay $240 an hour for it.

I was a science fiction junkie for a long time.