In science read by preference the newest works. In literature read the oldest. The classics are always modern.

In science read by preference the newest works in literature the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.

The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief... that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart.

It is a historical error for those who were not there to just refer to August 28th as 'I Have a Dream' speech day. That is a real disservice to those who were there. It was a sad day. It was not a celebration environment.

I don't ever want to be a sentimentalist. I prefer to be a realist. I'm not a romantic really.

Willing or preferring is the same with respect to good and evil that judging is with respect to truth or falsehood.

We show deference to the civil authorities when they respect the divine origin of their power and when they serve the people with objective reference to the law of God.

When I speak of 'cycles ' I am referring to lengthy intervals of relative homogeneity if not in the resolving of problems than at least with respect to the consistency of their capacity to productively irritate.

As a politician you have to deal with someone wanting you to fail every day. I think I prefer being in a situation where generally people are rooting for me and if they aren't rooting for me they aren't out there to see my downfall. I respect the people who have the stomach for it.

What I respect as far as in myself and in others is the spirit of just doing it. For better or worse it may work and it may not but I'm going to go for it. Ultimately I probably prefer to be respected for that than whether it works out or not either winning or losing.

How do you live with evil? Art is traditionally - certainly with my secular background - the answer but art is very self-referential whereas religion claims to go beyond the bounds of human existence.

It is very reasonable to worry about the harm done by organized religion and to prefer looser and more private arrangements.

There are a lot of Grinches out there that would like nothing better than to take any references to religion out of the holiday season.

Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego their identity.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity it destroys religion it destroys states it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

I especially object to having my character assassinated by reference to events from my past which bear absolutely no relationship to the question of who the anthrax killer is.

In England it's a rare thing to see a player smoking but all in all I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and in the short term it's much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body which becomes more susceptible to injury.

I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.

The term 'genre' eventually becomes pejorative because you're referring to something that's so codified and ritualised that it ceases to have the power and meaning it had when it first started.

Mystical references to society and its programs to help may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats.

However I must say that I am very happy to see that we have such a positive result for our first referendum in our history and that gives me more confidence in Taiwan's democracy.

I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches copies of copies until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity doubt uncertainty not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material but because that is the way we humans really are.

People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints such people have a corpse in their mouth.

I should prefer to have a politician who regularly went to a massage parlour than one who promised a laptop computer for every teacher.