The Bible unites its interpreters as a shared focus of attention, but it does not demand consensus. On the contrary, it invites and prods us to make responsible choices, to take responsibility for the choices that we have made... It was always like that, and our holy scripture grows over the centuries, gets thicker and thicker, with more texts around, which need/have to be looked into, referred to, considered.

In Montreal, where I taught in 1970, I met many people. The only ones who said to me they were Canadians, were Jews. All the rest were Scotts, Irish, English, French, Swedes.

The inequality between the world's individuals is staggering.

Never paint epic canvases during the revolution, because the revolutionaries will tear them apart.

The task for sociology is to come to the help of the individual. We have to be in service of freedom. It is something we have lost sight of.

Everybody is in trouble, including the up-and-coming economic miracles of China, Brazil or India.

Being condemned by fate to perpetual togetherness, we better make that shared fate into our shared, consciously and gladly embraced, destiny.