There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable.

The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.

We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.

How we pay attention to the present moment...determin es the character of our experience and...the quality of our lives.

You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.

How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.

You don't get anything worth getting, by pretending to know things you don't know.

Jesus Christ—who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death, and rose bodily into the heavens—can now be eaten in the form of a cracker

The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn't, we will kill you.

I can live without a boy. So why does it feel like I'm going to die?

I used to think that everything was just being funny but now I don't know. I mean, how can you tell?

To read is to let someone else work for you - the most delicate form of exploitation.

Discipline is doing what you don't wanna do so you can do what you really want to do.

Unfortunately, however much we may deplore something, it does not stop being true.

My father used to say: "Never suspect people, It's better to be deceived or mistaken, which is only human, after all, than to be suspicious, which is common."

How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, whom I may whisper, solitude is sweet.

It is to be remembered that the origin of all the arts-music, painting and writing-is magical and evocative; and that magic is always used to obtain some definite result.

Those old credulities, to Nature dear, Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock Of history?