The Usual Picture Of Socrates Is Of

Open-mindedness Should Not Be Fostered Because, As Scripture Teaches, Truth Is Great And Will Prevail, Nor Because, As Milton Suggests, Truth Will Always Win In A Free And Open Encounter. It Should Be Fostered For Its Own Sake.

Always Strive To Excel, But Only On Weekends.

The World Does Not Speak. Only We Do. The World Can, Once We Have Programmed Ourselves With A Language, Cause Us To Hold Beliefs. But It Cannot Propose A Language For Us To Speak. Only Other Human Beings Can Do That.

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

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.