One feature of our own society that seems decidedly anomalous is the matter of sexual advertisement. As we have seen, it is strongly to be expected on evolutionary grounds that, where the sexes differ, it should be the males that advertise and the females that are drab. Modern western man is undoubtedly exceptional in this respect. It is of course true that some men dress flamboyantly and some women dress drably but, on average, there can be no doubt that in our society the equivalent of the peacock's tail is exhibited by the female, not by the male. Women paint their faces and glue on false eyelashes. Apart from special cases, like actors, men do not. Ch. 9. Battle of the Sexes

The first cause cannot have been an intelligence, let alone an intelligence that answers prayers and enjoys being worshiped. Intelligent, creative, complex, statistically improbable things come late into the universe, as the product of evolution or some other process of gradual escalation from simple beginnings. They come late into the universe and therefore cannot be responsible for designing it. "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God", The Huffington Post, 23/10/2006

I would mind more if I could claim that The Selfish Gene had become severely outmoded and superseded. Unfortunately (from one point of view) I cannot. Details have changed and factual examples burgeoned mightily. But, with an exception that I shall discuss in a moment, there is little in the book that I would rush to take back now, or apologize for.

Just because science can't in practice explain things like the love that motivates a poet to write a sonnet, that doesn't mean that religion can. It's a simple and logical fallacy to say, 'If science can't do something, therefore religion can'.

Evolution is a fact. Beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt evolution is a fact. The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth that we are cousins of chimpanzees, somewhat more distant cousins of monkeys, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and manatees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips... continue the list as long as desired.

No doubt some of your cousins and great-uncles died in childhood, but not a single one of your ancestors did. Ancestors just don't die young!

The population of the US is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the US leads the world by miles. You would think that a country with such resources, and such a field of talent, would be able to elect a leader of the highest quality. Yet, what has happened? At the end of all the primaries and party caucuses, the speeches and the televised debates, after a year or more of non-stop electioneering bustle, who, out of that entire population of 300 million, emerges at the top of the heap? George Bush.

Such delusions of grandeur to think that a God with a hundred billion galaxies on his mind would give a tuppenny damn who you sleep with, or indeed whether you believe in him.

It is generally characteristic of arms races, including human ones, that although all would be better off if none of them escalated, so long as one of them escalates none can afford not to.

4 ways: Agnosticism, Relativism, Amorality, Morality. 

1) I don't know. 2) Everybody is different. 3) Do whatever you can. 4) Do what you should.

It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.

Don't turn back when you are just at the goal.

Better to be ignorant of a matter than half know it.

We should provide in peace what we need in war.

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.

Speech is a mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.

He is a despicable sage whose wisdom does not profit himself.

The greatest of empires, is the empire over one's self.

It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.

Let your life be pleasing to the multitude, and it can not be so to yourself.

Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.

Avarice is as destitute of what it has, as what it has not.

Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently.

No one knows what he can do till he tries.

To do two things at once is to do neither.

Money alone sets all the world in motion.

The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.

We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.

They pass peaceful lives who ignore mine and thine.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Be your money's master, not its slave.

Either be silent or say something better than silence.

It is only the ignorant who despise education.

Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.

It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody.

Poverty is the lack of many things, but avarice is the lack of all things.

An agreeable companion on a journey is as good as a carriage.

The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.

Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence.

We may with advantage at times forget what we know.

If your parent is just, revere him; if not, bear with him.

He sleeps well who knows not that he sleeps ill.

Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised.

Necessity gives the law without itself acknowledging one.

Whatever you can lose, you should reckon of no account.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Confidence is the only bond of friendship.