Society needs both justice and compassion, a head and a heart, if it is to be civilised.

Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right.

Waiting is so unusual that many of us can't stand in a queue for 30 seconds without getting out our phones to check for messages or to Google something.

The greatest moral failing is to condemn something as a moral failing: no vice is worse than being judgmental.

I don't think anyone who genuinely embraced sincerity, charity and modesty could be intolerant or divisive.

You don't choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.

Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That's why economics is not the dismal science, it's no science at all.

Being able and willing to complain is what makes us rational and moral animals, capable of seeing and articulating the difference between how things are and how they should be.

Love is indeed at root the product of the firings of neurons and release of hormones.

It may not have the virtuous ring of the golden rule, but the maxim "never say never" is one of the most important in ethics.

Dover's cliffs call to mind the Roman invasion; the Battle of Britain; our proximity to, yet difference from, mainland Europe; and international trade and exploration, both fair and exploitative.

The power of God, strength of will.

Worrying about outcomes over which I have no control is punishing myself before the universe has decided whether I ought to be punished.

I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem.

When you just don't think you can, keep going! Getting through those weak moments is how you become stronger.

We usually don't have applications in mind. They come later.

To your generation, I must represent the literary equivalent of tufted furniture and gas chandeliers.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist.

Strictly excel in what is excellence with grace

I don't regret any of my transgressions, because I believe I paid for them a million times over.

Just because I believed in what I was doing on the field and dedicated myself to playing the game, does that mean I'm cocky? Does that mean I'm arrogant?