“It's lawmakers know better than anyone that laws are more a matter of practical compromise than any kind of moral imperative.”

“That’s what made it sofrightening to the lawmakers: Love obeysno laws other than its own.”

“As his wife, Emilia must know Iago better than anybody else. She does not know, any more than the others, that he is malevolent, but she does know that her husband is addicted to practical jokes. What Shakespeare gives us in Iago is a portrait of a practical joker of a peculiarly appalling kind, and perhaps the best way of approaching the play is by a general consideration of the Practical Joker.”

“the fact that different cultures have different practices no more refutes [moral] objectivism than the fact that water flows in different directions in different places refutes the law of gravity”

“Persuasive influences are better than any amount of moralizing.”

“The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the laws of diminishing returns.”