A gentleman is never rude except on purpose - I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me.
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.
I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.
Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.
There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument.
I'm not particularly a feminist, but if you get women off the animal cycle of reproduction and give them some say in how many children they'll have, immediately the floor will rise.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
To the dumb question, 'Why me?' the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, 'Why not?'
The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy - the one that's absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.
I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.
Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.
Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.
I've had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.
My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilisation, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either.
High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments.
The fact is: It's true what they say about the United States. It is a land of opportunity. It is too various to get bored with it.
In one way, I suppose, I have been 'in denial' for some time, knowingly burning the candle at both ends and finding that it often gives a lovely light.
It doesn't take much to make me angry.
Primate and elephant and even pig societies show considerable evidence of care for others, parent-child bonding, solidarity in the face of danger, and so on.
To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.
