"Just in our lifetime our society has become looser and more private, it becomes extremely difficult to hold to any permanent commitment whatever, least of all to organized religion."

"If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny."

"Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination."

"Real equality is immensely difficult to achieve, it needs continual revision and monitoring of distributions. And it does not provide buffers between members, so they are continually colliding or frustrating each other."

"Our moral sense really evolved to bind groups together into teams that can cooperate in order to compete with other teams."

"The public character of every public servant is legitimate subject of discussion, and his fitness or unfitness for office may be fairly canvassed by any person."

"I am conservative with a small 'c.' It's possible to be conservative in fiscal policy, and tolerant on moral issues or questions of freedom of expression."

"Bond in 'Goldeneye' is pretty much a set character. To be honest, he's another version of Connery, and Connery was terrific. How many submarines can you blow up? How many control rooms are evaporating?"