“The habit of considering a man’s religious, moral and political opinions before appointing him to a post or giving him a job is the modern form of persecution.”

“Was using “dead-man’s-toe” morally okay if the man’s relatives had knowingly sold him for parts?”

“There are indeed moral universals — the Hebrew Bible calls them ‘the covenant with Noah’ and they form the basis of modern codes of human rights. But they exist to create space for cultural and religious difference…”

“To remember a man’s name is to give him eternal life”

“The first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise one cannot form a good opinion of him, for the prime error which he made was in choosing them.”

“…he stands there reading statistics about his own death even as it’s happening to him. Very post-modern.”