Volunteering has been undervalued in Britain for a long time. Often it has been seen as a kind of cut-price, amateur version of work that would be better done by the state. When politicians speak about it, people hear in the background the sound of budgets being cut.

A society in which there are high levels of voluntary activity will simply be a better, happier place than one where there are not.

The evidence shows that religious people - defined by regular attendance at a place of worship - actually do make better neighbours.

Hope, even more than necessity, is the mother of invention.

The market economy is deeply congruent with the values set out in the Hebrew Bible. Material prosperity is a divine blessing. Poverty crushes the spirit as well as the body, and its alleviation is a sacred task. Work is a noble calling.

When money rules, we remember the price of things and forget the value of things, and that is dangerous.

The universe is more than mere matter in motion. It and we were brought into being by a Creator who seeks our good.