"I used to wish there was a useful term for those of us who thought American power should be used to remove psychopathic dictators."

"One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue."

"When I meet people who say - which they do all of the time - 'I must just tell you, my great aunt had cancer of the elbow and the doctors gave her 10 seconds to live, but last I heard she was climbing Mount Everest,' and so forth, I switch off quite early."

"And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home."

"If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system."

"It is a essential truth that patience is not passive waiting; it is active endurance with a calm countenance."

"It is a enduring truth that a life well-lived leaves an aroma of kindness long after the sun has set — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"True authority is measured not by subjugation, but by the empowerment of others. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history."