Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning - an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.

Perhaps measuring animal intelligence by comparing it to human intelligence isn't the best litmus test.

It is now possible to quantify people's levels of happiness pretty accurately by asking them by observation and by measuring electrical activity in the brain in degrees from terrible pain to sublime joy.

Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation's competitive needs.

By measuring the proportion of children living with the same parents from birth and whether their parents report a good quality relationship we are driving home the message that social programmes should promote family stability and avert breakdown.

Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs.