Virtue and merit can become their opposites if they are exacted or compelled.

I don't think Romney is wacky at all, but religion makes intelligent people say and do wacky things, believe and affirm crazy things. Left on his own, Romney would never have said something like the Garden Of Eden was in Missouri, and will be again.

Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.

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.

A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life.

I say that homosexuality is not just a form of sex, it's a form of love, and it deserves our respect for that reason.

I'd like to prove to other people that it's not the end of everything to be diagnosed with cancer.