To me, work is not a burden but my main hobby. This is why I always take work with me when I go on holidays. Moreover, that's when new projects occur to me: while contemplating beautiful landscapes or seascapes.

From a historical viewpoint, religion is just a kind of superstition, and from a political viewpoint it is a tool of social control.

My Third-World roots remind me that the vast majority of our fellow human beings live hungry, sick, and uneducated, and that most social scientists, even in that world, ignore that ugly reality. This is why my papers in mathematical sociology deal not with free choice among 30 flavors of ice-cream, but with social structure, social cohesion, and social marginality.

There is a continuum between science and philosophy. As Fichte said (but did not practice), philosophy should be the science of sciences.

The motto of science is not just Pauca but rather Plurima ex paucissimis - the most out of the least.

In any event, I don't believe in instant philosophy, because interesting problems take a long time to understand and work out. Just think of the problems of truth and justice.

Original philosophy is always "deviant" or even subversive.