I think the reason we might hesitate to pay cash to students for doing well on tests or getting good grades or reading books is that we sense that the monetary payment is an extrinsic reward.

The way things are does not determine the way they ought to be

Self-knowledge is like lost innocence; however unsettling you find it, it can never be 'unthought' or 'unknown'.

The simplest way of understanding justice is giving people what they deserve. This idea goes back to Aristotle. The real difficulty begins with figuring out who deserves what and why.

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share in a common life.

To argue about justice is unavoidably to argue about virtues, about substantive moral and even spiritual questions.

Whether you're a libertarian liberal or a more egalitarian liberal, the idea is that justice means being non-judgmental with respect to the preferences people bring to public life.

I think too often in our society parents, who may have good impulses, overreach and try to mold and shape and direct their child.

Aiming at giving our kids a competitive edge in a consumer society - that, in principle, is a goal that is limitless.

You can't go wrong with fish and chips.

What intrigued me most was not the technology as such but the questions about the human goods, the fundamental human values and virtues that are raised by debates over biotechnology.

I've admired a lot of people in my life time and some of them were actually alive.

The most powerful tools of revolution through intention are humility and consciousness.

How to drive a guy crazy: send him a telegram and on the top put 'page 2.'

I began to see my life and each breath I am given as a living prayer to God and a way to pray for others for our world.

You never know how films are going to do and it is daunting if I think about it.

The more I read, the hungrier I become. Each book seemed promising, each page I turned offered an escapade, the allure of another world, other destinies, other dreams.

Do Something Now. If not you, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought.

What you do today can change all the tomorrow's of your life.