Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They're a kind of job insurance.

Religions often partake of the myth of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future.

There is no escape - we pay for the violence of our ancestors.

Demagogues are so easy to identify. They gesture a lot and speak with pulpit rhythms, using words that ring of religious fervour and god-fearing sincerity. Sincerity with nothing behind it takes so much practice. The practice can always be detected. Repetition. Great attempts to keep your attention on words.

To be a god can ultimately become boring and degrading. There'd be reason enough for the invention of free will! A god might wish to escape into sleep and be alive only in the unconscious projections of his dream-creatures.

I'm the well-trained fruit tree. Full of well-trained feelings and abilities and all of them grafted onto me

There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done.