But once we recognize that many ideas that are taken to be quintessentially Western have also flourished in other civilizations, we also see that these ideas are not as culture-specific as is sometimes claimed. We need not begin with pessimism, at least on this ground, about the prospects of reasoned humanism in the world.

[To organize a school] looks much more difficult in theory than it does in practice.

Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means.

Opponents of globalisation may see it as a new folly, but it is neither particularly new, nor, in general, a folly.

I believe that virtually all the problems in the world come from inequality of one kind or another.

Sometimes one makes a distinction between urgency and importance. And while disasters are urgent, the basically most important thing is education. And that's what gives it ultimately urgency too, because unless you do it now, this important thing gets again and again postponed.

Resenting the obtuseness of others is not good ground for shooting oneself in the foot.