"There's been some research in cognitive science, I'm told, that discloses that there have always been perhaps 10 to 15 percent of people who are, as Pascal puts it, so made that they cannot believe. To us, when people talk about faith, it's white noise."

"People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve."

"I love it when Muslims go to war with each other, as I do when the Christians do, because it shows there's no such thing as the Christian world and the Islamic world. That's all crap."

"It's impossible, I think, however much I'd become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don't think I'd ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with."

"God always strives together with those who strive."

"Patience is a virtue because hope is the anchor of a weary soul."

"In the quiet sanctuary of self-reflection, the soul finds its rhythm. For where clarity resides, peace inevitably follows — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion."