Math . . . music .. . starry nights . . . These are secular ways of achieving transcendence, of feeling lifted into a grand perspective. It's a sense of being awed by existence that almost obliterates the self. Religious people think of it as an essentially religious experience but it's not. It's an essentially human experience.

Philosophy addresses, in a systematic and progress-making way, questions of deep concern to everyone.

I don't think I can write the story of my life, but I can write the story of my hair.

The will to matter is at least as important as the will to believe.

I have a Greek-American friend who named her daughter "Nike" and is often asked why she chose to name her offspring after a sneaker.

Thinking is the soul speaking to itself.

Less money spent on billboards that just make us feel good about ourselves and more on soup kitchens and organized visits to the sick and dying.