Disagreements between incompatible beliefs cannot be settled by reasoned argument because reasoned argument is drummed out of those trained in religion from the cradle.

The odd thing about tradition is, the longer it's been going, the more people seem to take it seriously - as though sheer passage of time makes something which to begin with was just made up, turns it into what people believe as a fact.

[Jay] Gould sets up an artificial wall between the two worldviews that doesn't exist in my life.

Cloning may be good and it may be bad. Probably it's a bit of both. The question must not be greeted with reflex hysteria but decided quietly, soberly and on its own merits. We need less emotion and more thought.

You can't understand European history at all other than through religion, or English literature either if you can't recognise biblical allusions.

I do think imagination is enormously valuable, and that children should be encouraged in their imagination. That's very true.

When I am dying, I should like my life taken out under general anaesthetic, exactly as if it were a diseased appendix.