“We, on the other hand, with our dissection of cadavers, organ transplantation, cosmetic surgery, body shops, laboratory fertilization, surrogate wombs, gender-change surgery, “wanted” children, “rights over our bodies,” sexual liberation, and other practices and beliefs that insist on our independence and autonomy, live more and more wholly for the here and now, subjugating everything we can to the exercise of our wills, with little respect for the nature and meaning of bodily life.”

“The supreme virtue of the virtuous woman was modesty, a form of sexual self-control, manifested not only in chastity but in decorous dress and manner, speech and deed, and in reticence in the display of her well-banked affections.”

“Thanks to technology, a woman could declare herself free from the teleological meaning of her sexuality — as free as a man appears to be from his. Her menstrual cycle, since puberty a regular reminder of her natural maternal destiny, is now anovulatory and directed instead by her will and her medications, serving goals only of pleasure and convenience, enjoyable without apparent risk to personal health and safety.”

“A nation dedicated to safeguarding individual rights to liberty and the privately defined pursuit of happiness is, willy-nilly, preparing the way for the “liberation” of women; in the absence of powerful non-liberal cultural forces, such as traditional biblical religion, that defend sex-linked social roles, androgyny in education and employment is the most likely outcome.”

“In the absence of such countervailing customs, as Bacon clearly understood, the successful pursuit of longer life and better health leads – as we have seen in recent decades – to a culture of protracted youthfulness, hedonism, and sexual license.”

“My approach is deliberately simple, but I hope not thereby simple-minded.”

“Parents of college-bound young people, especially those with strong religious and family values, could direct their children to religiously affiliated colleges that attract like-minded people.”

“Even if it is true that the great majority of Americans still profess a belief in God, he is for few of us a God before whom one trembles in fear of judgment. With adultery almost as American as apple pie, few people appreciate the awe-ful shame of The Scarlet Letter. The sexual abominations of Leviticus – incest, homosexuality, and bestiality – are going the way of all flesh, the second with religious blessings, no less.”

“Could the beauty of flowers depend on the fact that they will soon wither? . . . How deeply could one deathless ‘human’ being love another?”

“Biotechnologies may undermine the likelihood that I will find my path to a full and rich life.”

“Fancy medical technology wasn’t going to benefit a lot of people. It would lead to a trade in human spare parts.”

“My job is to provide the president with the richest possible consideration, so that he knows what is at stake in whatever decision he makes.”

“What about the changing mores of marriage, divorce, single parent families and sexual behavior? Do we applaud these changes? Do we want to contribute further to this confusion of thought, identity and practice?”

“Our society is dangerously close to losing its grip on the meaning of some fundamental aspects of human existence.”

“Withering is nature’s preparation for death, for the one who dies and for the ones who look upon him.”

“I don’t regard myself as a good enough Jew by a long shot, either in terms of learning or practice.”

“One could look over the past century and ask oneself, has the increased longevity been good, bad or indifferent?”

“The human soul yearns for, longs for, aspires to some condition, some state, some goal toward which our earthly activities are directed but which cannot be attained during earthly life.”

“Our only responsibility is to live our own life and take care of our own children.”

“Sexuality itself means mortality – equally for both man and woman.”

“The interest in religious questions and religious studies among the younger generation is palpable.”

“We are enmeshed in a lineage that came from somewhere and is going to make way for the next generation.”

“I don’t like being forced to reduce my thoughts to sound bites.”

And possibly the most famous:

“Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone — a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive…This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if WE feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior.”

Leon Kass – what an ass. Read my response to this nutjob from 2003.