"The Qur'an does not mention constitutionalism, but human rational thinking and experience have shown that constitutionalism is necessary for realizing the just and good society prescribed by the Qur'an. An Islamic justification and support for constitutionalism is important and relevant for Muslims. Non-Muslims may have their own secular or other justifications. As long as all are agreed on the principle and specific rules of constitutionalism, including complete equality and non-discrimination on the grounds of gender or religion, each may have his or her own reasons for coming to that agreement."

-- Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law

"It is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the individual has an ineradicable tendency to get rid of everything he does not know and does not want to know about himself by foisting it off on somebody else."

-- Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self

"It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be."

-- T.S. Eliot, "Religion and Literature", Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot

"Take any action allow'd to be vicious: Wilful murder, for instance. Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence which you call vice. In whichever way you take it, you find only certain passions, motives, volitions and thoughts. There is no matter of fact in the case."

-- David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

"Our joy is not for Communists... it’s for what hosting the Olympics means to the history of the Chinese people."

-- Joe Lam, in "For Many Expatriates, Olympics Signal China’s Arrival", The New York Times

"It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even... Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it."

-- Hélène Samuel, in "In Paris, Burgers Turn Chic", The New York Times

"To tear down the walls of the state is not... to create a world without walls, but rather to create a thousand petty fortresses. The fortresses, too, can be torn down: all that is necessary is a global state sufficiently powerful to overwhelm the local communities. Then the result would be the world of the political economist — a world of deracinated men and women."

-- Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice

"Libertarianism is a philosophy of government, but conservatism is a philosophy of life... Conservatives defend freedom not because they believe in the right to do as you please, but because freedom is the precondition for virtue... Without freedom there is no virtue: A coerced virtue is no virtue at all... The best argument for freedom is not that it is an end in itself but that it is the necessary prerequisite for choosing what is right."

-- Dinesh D'Souza, "The Libertarian Temptation", Letters to a Young Conservative

Tokyo, Japan