What set us apart from most or all of the other hominid species was our ultrasociality, our ability to be highly cooperative, even with strangers, people who are not at all related to us.

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

Religion and science, for example, are often though to be opponents, but as I have shown, the insights of ancient religions and of modern science are both needed to reach a full understanding of human nature and the conditions of human satisfaction. The ancients may have known little about biology, chemistry, physics, but many were good psychologists.

People can believe pretty much whatever they want to believe about moral and political issues, as long as some other people near them believe it, so you have to focus on indirect methods to change what people want to believe.

Empathy is an antidote to righteousness, although it's very difficult to empathize across a moral divide

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

Religious experiences are real and common, whether or not God exists, and these experiences often make people whole and at peace.