Marriage, sanctified by the bond of fidelity, is the nearest life gets to a work of art.

In virtually every Western society in the 1960s there was a moral revolution, an abandonment of its entire traditional ethic of self-restraint.

Which European leader today would not relish the wonder-working powers of a Moses? Budget deficit? Unpopular cuts? How about just a little miracle, an overnight increase in gold reserves, a new oil field, or the next world-changing communications technology? Surely that's not too much to ask.

If we are to cherish freedom, and to guard it, we must remember what the alternative is: the bread of affliction and the bitter herbs of slavery.

In our interconnected world, we must learn to feel enlarged, not threatened, by difference - that is what I have argued.

A perfect storm is in the making: financial uncertainty, economic downturn, government cuts, rising unemployment and a future that looks less clear the more we try to fathom it.

Religiosity turns out to be the best indicator of civic involvement: it's more accurate than education, age, income, gender or race.