For a pragmatist like me, the important issues concern the words we might deploy to achieve our purposes, rather than the language we actually use.

It's a very bad idea for scientific conclusions to be accepted because they fit with the political values of a group of researchers.

I believe that the arts make indispensable contributions to our understanding.

I'm very suspicious of the idea of a "final theory" in natural science, and the thought of a complete system of ethical rules seems even more dubious.

Philosophers ought to aspire to know lots of different things and to forge useful synthetic perspectives.

It may be hyperbolic to declare that Shakespeare teaches us more about being human than all the natural scientists combined.

The "little theme" from Vinteuil, heard by Swann as emblematic of his love for Odette, remains a point of reference for him, as the character of that love changes and as the love eventually fades.

Science literacy consists in the ability and the desire to follow reports of new scientific advances, throughout your whole life.

The theory of evolution explains to us what our ancestry has been. It does not explain away our worth. Why should we be afraid to learn more about what we are?

In ethics, we don't make progress by discovering pre-existent truths; we do so by solving problems.

The point of philosophy, as I see it, is to change thinking, and thereby to change the conversation.

She was a universe holding a billion galaxies in her heart.

They shouldn't be allowed to teach math so early in the morning.

Ella was fluttering above him, dodging missiles and calling out advice: "The groin. The Earthborn's groin is sensitive."SMASH!"Good. Yes. Tyson found its groin.

Keep a minimum of 15” between coffee tables and sofas

Mitt Romney is the guy who said corporations are people. No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people.

Books should to one of these fours ends conduce, for wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?

Sometimes, in my published complaints about not being a writer, I have recalled the prospect - the yearning to be a writer - as it first formed for me.

What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.