Would you take a billion dollars, if as part of the deal the Earth were made uninhabitable a year after your death? ... well, of course not; you care about your friends, above all your children, any grandchildren. But ... what if the deal calls for the planet to be poisoned a thousand years later? We feel strong obligations to generations in the near future - should we not feel the same way about our children's great-grandchildren and generations beyond them?

The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.

I think it takes a long time, as you get older, to realize just how crazy the world is, just how ridiculous it all is.

A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.

Tension is wonderful for making people laugh.

If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick.

My views are heretical to people who believe in political correctness.