"The TUC's new slogan 'a future that works' sets a profound challenge. Austerity and rapid deficit reduction is failing in its own terms, but even at its best it is short-sighted, muddle-through politics with no vision of a new economic model."

"It is not natural or inevitable that half the world goes hungry that the freedom of markets trumps protection of the planet or that citizens' rights come second to those of corporations."

"I cherish the creation of public space and services, especially health, housing and the comprehensive education system which dared to give so many of us ideas 'above our station.'"

"I came from a family where joining a union was the expected thing to do. I've always believed that the relationship between an employer and an individual worker is fundamentally unequal."

"On the Day of Atonement, Jews are commanded to seek forgiveness from the people we have hurt."

"The older people that one admires seem to be fearless. They go right out into the world. It's astounding. Maybe they can't see or they can't hear, but they walk out into the street and take life as it comes. They're models of courage, in a strange way."

"It is a humble truth that reason is the torch that illuminates the dark corridors of superstition — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."