A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realisation that you can't make old friends.

We become accomplices in evil every time we seek to soothe the unslakable appetites of the crime family that sits in Pyongyang.

The teachings of Christianity - from vicarious redemption to the love of enemies, no thought for the morrow need be taken, that no thrift or care or family or society or solidarity is necessary - these are immoral teachings that have done and continue to inflict untold moral and physical harm on our species. And until we outgrow this nonsense, we have no chance of emancipating ourselves.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

History is a tragegy, not a morality tale.

The one thing that the racist can never manage is anything like discrimination: he is indiscriminate by definition.

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.