“Two days after the Boston marathon bombings, there was a drone strike in Yemen attacking a peaceful village, which killed a target who could very easily have been apprehended. But, of course, it is just easier to terrorise people.”

It is also a course of action that strikes a blow against the regime of international order, but which offers the weak at least some protection from predatory states.

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself.

There are two problems for our species’ survival – nuclear war and environmental catastrophe – and we’re hurtling towards them. Knowingly.

I would feel no hesitation in saying that it is the responsibility of a decent human being to give assistance to a child who is being attacked by a rabid dog.

It is easier to go to the Internet than to go to the library, undoubtedly. But the shift from no libraries to the existence of libraries was a much greater shift than what we’ve seen with the Internet’s development.

Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions.

It’s dangerous when people are willing to give up their privacy.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‘least advanced’ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us.

Even the most cynical can hardly be surprised by the antics of Nixon and his accomplices as they are gradually revealed.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

It is true that classical libertarian thought is opposed to state intervention in social life, as a consequence of deeper assumptions about the human need for liberty, diversity, and free association.

Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful.

Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be – protect themselves.

In the case of the environment, there’s no one to bail it out.

History shows that, more often than not, loss of sovereignty leads to liberalisation imposed in the interests of the powerful.

The soul, in its power, is present in some way in the entire universe, because it apprehends substances which are not included in the body in which it lives, although they are related to it.

Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation.

Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.

Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own – but that we could never have described on our own.

Only those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method