Not only do we have a right to be happy, we have an obligation to be happy— because our happiness has an effect on everyone around us. |
One of the great mind destroyers of college education is the belief that if it's very complex, it's very profound. |
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? |
Socialism values equality more than liberty. |
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. |
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. |
There is little correlation between the circumstances of people's lives and how happy they are. |
There is much less envy of the rich by the poor than there is of the happy by the unhappy; by those who believe by those who don’t believe. |
There's a lot more power in calm than in vituperation. |
Those who are compassionate when they should be tough will be tough when they should be compassionate. |
Those who believe in nothing are very, very jealous and angry at those who believe in something. |
Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists. |
When I grew up, the conservatives were the isolationists and the liberals were the idealists. Now it's reversed. |
When you are guaranteed you will win, you can take very inflammatory, very extreme positions. If you have to run in a district where where you might lose, you will move to the center. That is the beauty of the two party system in America as opposed to the parliamentary system in Europe. |