Those who believe in nothing are very, very jealous and angry at those who believe in something.

Although images of perfection in people’s personal lives can cause unhappiness, images of perfect societies – utopian images – can cause monstrous evil. In fact, forcefully changing society to conform to societal images was the greatest cause of evil in the twentieth century.

There’s a lot more power in calm than in vituperation.

Conservatives divide the world in terms of good and evil while liberals do it in terms of the rich and poor.

More harm was done in the 20th century by faceless bureaucrats than tyrant dictators.

Those who believe in nothing are very, very jealous and angry at those who believe in something.

The larger the state, the more callous it becomes… the colder its heart. It is also true that the bigger the corporation, the more callous its heart. But unlike the state, corporations have competition and have no police powers.

The idea that you earn things – that you earn respect, that you earn income, responsibility. the vote, punishment… these ideas are anathema to the liberal mind.

Those who are compassionate when they should be tough will be tough when they should be compassionate.

Socialism values equality more than liberty.

Our scientific age demands that we provide definitions, measurements, and statistics in order to be taken seriously. Yet most of the important things in life cannot be precisely defined or measured. Can we define or measure love, beauty, friendship, or decency, for example?

Liberals tend to put the onus of your success on society and conservatives on you and your family.

Given the amount of unjust suffering and unhappiness in the world, I am deeply grateful for, sometimes even perplexed by, how much misery I have been spared.

Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.

One of the great mind destroyers of college education is the belief that if it’s very complex, it’s very profound.

How a society channels male aggression is one of the greatest questions as to whether that society will survive. That’s why I am not against violence in the media, I am against the glorification of immoral violence.

If your religion doesn’t teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless.

There is little correlation between the circumstances of people’s lives and how happy they are.