"The middle class, one of the great achievements in history, is becoming more of a relic than a reality."

"If a person is homosexual by nature - that is, if one's sexuality is as intrinsic a part of one's identity as gender or skin color - then society can no more deny a gay person access to the secular rights and religious sacraments because of his homosexuality than it can reinstate Jim Crow."

"The problem for those who assert biblical authority in support of traditional definitions of marriage is that one could, with equal validity, assert that the lending of money or certain kinds of haircuts are forbidden by God, or that slavery and the subjugation of women are authorized by the Lord."

"Religious belief, like history itself, is a story that is always unfolding, always subject to inquiry and ripe for questioning. For without doubt there is no faith."

"Marriage may be compared to a cage: the birds outside despair to get in and those within despair to get out."

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

"The current total of countries in the world with First Amendments is one. You have guaranteed freedom of speech. Other countries don't have that."

"Freedom is not won by merely overthrowing a tyrannical ruler or an oppressive regime. That is usually only the prelude to a new tyranny, a new oppression."