The most educated person in the world now has to admit-- I shall not say confess-- that he or she knows less and less but at least knows less and less about more and more.

Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug all your life. Make your last days the best ones. People might suppose this was in poor taste.

My children, to the extent that they have found religion, have found it from me, in that I insist on at least a modicum of religious education for them.

Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.

Everything about Christianity is contained in the pathetic image of 'the flock.

History is a tragegy, not a morality tale.

A gentleman is never rude except on purpose - I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me.