Steven Pinker Quotes - Page 10

Quotes about:

• Paris Hilton, it turns out, is related to fellow celebrity jailbirds Zsa Zsa Gabor and G. Gordon Liddy.

  Steven Pinker

  Paris, Turns, Related

  "Surprising Family Trees!". abcnews.go.com. October 18, 2007.

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• I get drawn in when I feel there is something deep and mysterious going on beneath the surface of something.

  Steven Pinker

  Mysterious, Beneath The Surface, Surface

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• We can shape events in each other's brains with exquisite precision.

  Steven Pinker

  Vocabulary, Brain, Events

  Steven Pinker (2010). “The Language Instinct: How The Mind Creates Language”, p.1, Harper Collins

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• Language mavens commonly confuse their own peeves with a worsening of the language.

  Steven Pinker

  Mavens, Language, Peeves

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• The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.

  Steven Pinker

  Baby, Age, Tourists

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• One of the perks of being a psychologist is access to tools that allow you to carry out the injunction to know thyself.

  Steven Pinker

  Tools, Psychologist, Know Thyself

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• Astrology had an important role in the ancient world. You can't understand many things unless you know something about astrology - the plays of Shakespeare and so on.

  Steven Pinker

  Play, Astrology, Important

  "Proud atheists". Salon Interview, www.salon.com. October 15, 2007.

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• Climate change could produce a lot of misery and waste without necessarily leading to large-scale armed conflict, which depends more on ideology and bad governance than on resource scarcity.

  Steven Pinker

  Climate, Scarcity, Waste

  "Steven Pinker: 'Artists used to gush about the beauty of war. The First World War put an end to that'". Interview with Clint Witchalls, www.independent.co.uk. November 10, 2011.

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• For one thing, before the 20th century, there were plenty of genocides. We tend to forget about them, partly because they weren't as well documented and partly because, until recently, people didn't care. We used euphemisms like 'sackings' and 'sieges' instead of calling them 'genocides.'

  Steven Pinker

  People, Calling, Care

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• We can make fun of hockey fans, but someone who enjoys Homer is indulging the same kind of vicarious bloodlust.

  Steven Pinker

  Fun, Hockey, Bloodlust

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• Today we take it for granted that war happens in smaller, poorer and more backward countries.

  Steven Pinker

  Country, War, Today

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.281, Penguin

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• We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive drives.

  Steven Pinker

  Violence, World, Violent

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• People are under the impression that dictionaries legislate language. What a dictionary does is keep track of usages over time.

  Steven Pinker

  Track, People, Doe

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• There has to be innate circuitry that does the learning, that creates the culture, that acquires the culture, and that responds to socialization.

  Steven Pinker

  Culture, Doe, Acquire

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• The 9/11 strikes left an indelible impact on our minds, but in relative terms, the scale of casualties actually wasn't all that high.

  Steven Pinker

  Impact, Mind, Scales

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• The brain is not a bag of traits. It's startlingly complex. There are few or no single genes with a consistent effect on the mind.

  Steven Pinker

  Brain, Mind, Bags

  "Will Genetic Engineering Kill Us?" by Mark Baard, www.wired.com. April 16, 2003.

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• I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life.

  Steven Pinker

  Writing, Hockey, Ice

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• The connections I draw between human nature and political systems in my new book, for example, were prefigured in the debates during the Enlightenment and during the framing of the American Constitution.

  Steven Pinker

  Book, Political, Enlightenment

  "A biological understanding of human nature". Edge Interview, www.edge.org. September 8, 2002.

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• People know there is a difference between what you do and what you accept. There is a difference between me knowing that people swear, me hearing people swear and me swearing, and everyone accepting that this is something you can do as much as you like.

  Steven Pinker

  Differences, Knowing, People

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• You could think of an ecosystem as a bunch of antagonistic arms races, almost: Everything that an animal depends upon for food is the body part of some other animal or plant who would just as soon keep that body part for itself.

  Steven Pinker

  Animal, Thinking, Race

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• [Napoleon deployed] every available resource to inflict all-out defeats on [his] enemies.

  Steven Pinker

  Enemy, Defeat, Resources

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• Photography is a demanding action sport. The light can change so quickly. I often find myself sprinting so that I can catch the perfect light falling on a photogenic subject.

  Steven Pinker

  Sports, Photography, Fall

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• Why is it surprising that scientists might have long hair and wear cowboy boots? In fields like neuroscience, where the events you are recording are so minute, I suspect scientists cultivate a boring, reliable image. A scientist with a reputation for flamboyance might be suspect.

  Steven Pinker

  Cowboy, Hair, Long

  "This much I know". Interview with Tom Templeton, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2008.

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• Regardless of its causes, thoughtlessly blaming the present is a weakness which, even if it is never outlawed, ought to be resisted. Though commonly flaunted as a sign of sophistication, it can be an opportunity for one-upmanship and an excuse for misanthropy, especially against the young.

  Steven Pinker

  Opportunity, Weakness, Causes

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• When time permits, I try to see interesting people in the cities I visit. In Seattle, I met Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, who is shy in personality but flamboyant in his philanthropy.

  Steven Pinker

  Cities, People, Interesting

  "My week" by Steven Pinker, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2007.

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