The very ritual practices that the New Atheists dismiss as costly, inefficient and irrational turn out to be a solution to one of the hardest problems humans face: cooperation without kinship

Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into teams … but thereby makes us go blind to objective reality.

Sports is to war as pornography is to sex. We get to exercise some ancient, ancient drives.

While it is useful to rebut charges and get your arguments out in circulation, you have to understand that arguments and evidence have little impact on people as long as their feelings tilt them against you.

If I have a mission in life, it is to convince people that everyone is morally motivated - everyone except for psychopaths.

If you are in passionate love and want to celebrate your passion, read poetry. If your ardor has calmed and you want to understand your evolving relationship, read psychology. But if you have just ended a relationship and would like to believe you are better off without love, read philosophy.

The great conservative insight is that order is really hard to achieve. It’s really precious, and it’s really easy to lose.