I cannot imagine a context that would some day, in some manner, make the monstrous crime of September 11 an understandable or comprehensible political act

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.

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

Only a writer "with Bennett's craft and brass could manage to praise and insult his readers at the same time.

Change isn't always comfortable, but it always teaches us something of utmost importance – usually about ourselves – and we become better people for it.

Live as if you already are what you wish to become.

You say grace before meals. I say grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

We've issued a game-changing new rule that says for each one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. Makes sense. Nobody's ever seen regulations like we have.

Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.

If one is rich and one's a woman, one can be quite misunderstood.

I don't speak for all Libertarians any more than Sean Penn speaks for all Democrats.

Jesus is the only Savior, but not everybody who is saved by Him is aware that He is the one who is doing the saving.

No one will pay you to solve a non-problem.