Four innate sentiments dispose people to a universal moral sense. These are sympathy, fairness, self-control and duty.

In terms of other functions, we are making a mistake about insisting on a public school monopoly.

We live in a world shaped by the ambiguous legacy of the Enlightenment...[it] enlarged the scope of human freedom, prepared our minds for the scientific method, made man the measure of all things, and placed individual consent front and center on the political stage.

Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.

Character is not the enemy of self-expression and personal freedom, it is their necessary precondition.

What most needs explanation is not why some people are criminals, but why most people are not.

Many Americans have lost confidence in the way our criminal courts assess guilt and innocence. Whatever one thinks of the verdicts, the recent trials of O.J. Simpson, Erik and Lyle Menendez, and various defendants in preschool molestation cases have been lengthy, lawyer-dominated soap operas in which the search for truth has been subordinated to the manipulation of procedures.