It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men kindness and generosity openness honesty understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest sharpness greed acquisitiveness meanness egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
God created man in His own image says the Bible philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.
The style of God venerated in the church mosque or synagogue seems completely different from the style of the natural universe.
I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe - because like Spinoza's God it won't love us in return.
A universe with a God would look quite different from a universe without one. A physics a biology where there is a God is bound to look different. So the most basic claims of religion are scientific. Religion is a scientific theory.
My religion encompasses all religions. I believe in God I believe in the universe. I believe you are god I believe I am god I believe the earth is god and the universe is god. We're all god.
It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise just and omnipotent God but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.
Look out into the universe and contemplate the glory of God. Observe the stars millions of them twinkling in the night sky all with a message of unity part of the very nature of God.
There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.
And time itself? Time was a never-ending medium that stretched into the future and the past - except there was no future and no past but an infinite number of brackets extending either way each bracket enclosing its single phase of the Universe.
That future depends on the values of self-government our sense of duty loyalty self-confidence and regard for the common good. We are a diverse country and getting more diverse. And these virtues are what keep this great country together.
The four building blocks of the universe are fire water gravel and vinyl.
Plunderous is the palate I gift to you openly I hug the universe of our friendship expanding its outer limit.
I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be called free verse is in my first book. I got through that fairly early.
In South Africa we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world who through the use of non-violent means such as boycotts and divestment encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.
Clearly America's dysfunctional food culture must bear some of the blame for our excess pounds but it's likely our walking-averse lifestyles contribute as well.
No matter where I've been overseas the food stinks except in Italy.
I think wine is such a big universe that it's kind of like food - it's intimidating to a lot of people myself included.
But because we in the United States finance our current account deficit by borrowing in our own currency we can move to a more competitive dollar without the adverse effects that followed currency declines in other countries.
Small- and medium-sized businesses need access to a diverse range of finance options including non-bank lending. These new forms of finance are still small in scale today but they should over time bring additional choice and greater competition to the lending market.
I think masculinity is bravado against the mystery of the universe of women. It's just a fear of not knowing what women have that's so powerful. It's this shield they put up to try to get closer.
I remember looking at the sky and thinking that the universe is so big and it's all chaos. I call it 'the dark fear.' At any moment the dark fear could come in.
I've been quite fascinated by the relative insignificance of human existence the shortness of life. We might as well be a letter in a word in a sentence on a page in a book in a library in a city in one country in this enormous universe! And that kind of fear and insignificance has kept me awake at night.
I think the driving thing was curiosity about the universe. That fascinated me. I didn't think anything about being famous or anything like that I was just interested in the concepts involved.
You can say I had a severe case of 'Roots' envy. I wanted to be like Alex Haley and I wanted to be able to... do my family tree back to the slave ship and then reverse the Middle Passage as I like to put it and find the tribe or ethnic group that I was from in Africa.