At 12, I Knew That The Point

The Most Important Advance That The West Has Yet Made Is To Develop A Secularist Moral Tradition

I Think Of An Intellectual As Just Being Bookish, Being Interested In History Books, Utopian Ideas, That Kind Of Thing.

I Think That A Good Left Is A Party That Always Thinks About The Future And Doesn't Care Much About Our Past Sins.

I Now Wish That I Had Spent Somewhat More Of My Life With Verse. This Is Not Because I Fear Having Missed Out On Truths That Are Incapable Of Statement In Prose. There Are No Such Truths; There Is Nothing About Death That Swinburne And Landor Knew But Epicurus And Heidegger Failed To Grasp. Rather, It Is Because I Would Have Lived More Fully If I Had Been Able To Rattle Off More Old Chestnuts — just As I Would Have If I Had Made More Close Friends.

Philosophy Makes Progress Not By Becoming More Rigorous But By Becoming More Imaginative.