Religion gets its morality from us. We don't get our morality from religion.

I'm here as a product of process of evolution, which doesn't make very many exceptions. And which rates life relatively cheaply.

One of the many dreadful aspects of the Kennedy 'legacy' is the now-unbreakable grip of celebrity politics, image-doctoring, stage management, and "torch-passing" rhetoric in general.

Religion, it is true, still possesses the huge if cumbersome and unwieldy advantage of having come first.

I can’t hope to convey the full effect of the embraces and avowals, but I can perhaps offer a crumb of counsel. If there is anybody known to you who might benefit from a letter or a visit, do not on any account postpone the writing or the making of it. The difference made will almost certainly be more than you have calculated

Trust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake.

In the ordinary moral universe, the good will do the best they can, the worst will do the worst they can, but if you want to make good people do wicked things, you’ll need religion.