Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.

If active or concerned citizens forfeit politics, they thereby abandon their society to its most mediocre and venal public servants

Obviously a primary liberal conviction is that we should be tolerant of other peoples' convictions. But if we believe in something, we had better find ways to say so convincingly.

Social democracy does not represent an ideal future; it does not even represent the ideal past.

What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.

I'm not sure I've learned anything new about life; but I've had to think harder about death and what comes after for other people.