Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter our innate biases and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe.

There's no way to reconcile Islam with Christianity. This difference of opinion admits of compromise as much as a coin toss does.

Unreason is now ascendant in the United States—in our schools, in our courts, and in each branch of the federal government.

Religious faith is the one species of human ignorance that will not admit of even the possibility of correction.

Most of us are wiser than we may appear to be. … On one level, wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow one’s own advice.

I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.

There is no reason whatsoever to think that Buddhism can compete successfully with the relentless evangelizing of Christianity and Islam. Nor should it try to.