Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.

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.

Beware of will power. It damages your giving-up skills.

I believe that the choice not to have a choice is a choice in itself.

Who, cher monsieur, will sleep on the floor for us? Whether I am capable of it myself? Look, I'd like to be and I shall be. Yes, we shall all be capable of it one day, and that will be salvation.

Keep your honor code between you and God, you don't break that, no matter who's not looking. God is.

This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias, or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight.

All human race would be wits. And millions miss, for one that hits.

Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision.

Discipline for me is about respect. It's not even about self-respect; it's about respect for life and all it offers.

If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience.

I have tried to make sure I knew the law and what the most recent changes were, and I've applied the law to the facts. I have not lost sleep over the decisions I have made.