I think there are universal principles that we should want to understand, but that are not necessarily good for us. We could recognise universal propensities which current cultures can't fully eradicate, which we would want to eradicate if we could. Let's say, a tendency for tribal violence. Or racism.

We will see that the greatest problem confronting civilization is not merely religious extremism: rather, it is the larger set of cultural and intellectual accommodations we have made to faith itself.

The problem is that religion tends to give people bad reasons to be good.

Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love

Strange bonds of trust and self-deception tend to grow between journalists and their subjects.

Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name.

From my point of view, compatibilism is a little like saying: a puppet is free so long as it loves its strings.