As long as a population can be induced to believe in a supernatural hereafter, it can be oppressed and controlled. People will put up with all sorts of tyranny, poverty, and painful treatment if they're convinced that they'll eventually escape to some resort in the sky where lifeguards are superfluous and the pool never closes. Moreover, the faithful are usually willing to risk their skins in whatever military adventure their government may currently be promoting.

Religions lead us to believe that the soul is the ultimate family jewel and that in return for our mindless obedience, they can secure it for us in their vaults, or at least insure it against fire and theft. They are mistaken.

If the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering.

I think science has begun to demonstrate that aging is a disease. If it is, it can be cured.

The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime.

You're better equipped for this world than I am," she said. "I'm always trying to change the world. You know how to live in it.

It's hard to say who's a greater threat to the world, an ambitious CEO with a big ad budget or a crafty cleric with an obsolete Bible verse.