Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.

The stupider the regime the more intelligent the people get and the more humorous.

I've been to Uganda and to North Korea and to Eritrea, countless horror spots around the world.

The fragility of love is what is most at stake here—humanity's most crucial three-word avowal is often uttered only to find itself suddenly embarrassing or orphaned or isolated or ill-timed—but strangely enough it can work better as a literal or reassuring statement than a transcendent or numinous or ecstatic one.

The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.

The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.

As the many male victims of rape in the regime's disgusting jails can testify, this state-run pathology of sexual repression and sexual sadism is not content to degrade women only.