The Rights Revolutions too have given us ideals that educated people today take for granted but that are virtually unprecedented in human history, such as that people of all races and creeds have equal rights, that women should be free from all forms of coercion, that children should never, ever be spanked, that students should be protected from bullying, and that there’s nothing wrong with being gay. I don’t find it at all implausible that these are gifts, in part, of a refined and widening application of reason.

I think a lot of moral debates are not over what is the basis of justice, but who gets a ticket to play in the game.

The typical imperative from biology is not "Thou shalt... ," but "If ... then ... else.

One of the perks of being a psychologist is access to tools that allow you to carry out the injunction to know thyself.

Without goals the very concept of intelligence is meaningless

The human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing.

Many artists and scholars have pointed out that ultimately art depends on human nature.