Steven Pinker Quotes - Page 11

Quotes about:

• 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

  33 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• So no, it's not all in the genes, but what isn't in the genes isn't in the family environment either. It can't be explained in terms of the overall personalities or the child-rearing practices of parents.

  Steven Pinker

  Children, Practice, Personality

  "A biological understanding of human nature". Edge Interview, www.edge.org. September 18, 2017.

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  18 Copy quote

• The reason the United States is not so likely to invade Iran is precisely because of the lessons learned from Iraq. And conversely, the Iranian push towards nuclear capability is calculated to deter invasions like the kind deposing Saddam Husain.

  Steven Pinker

  Iran, Iraq, Lesson Learned

  4 Copy quote

• There is no society ever discovered in the remotest corner of the world that has not had something that we would consider the arts. Visual arts - decoration of surfaces and bodies - appears to be a human universal.

  Steven Pinker

  Art, World, Body

  4 Copy quote

• There's a misconception that survival of the fittest means survival of the most aggressive. The adjective 'Darwinian' used to refer to ruthless competition; you used to read that in business journals. But that's not what Darwinian means to a biologist; it's whatever leads to reproductive success.

  Steven Pinker

  Mean, Competition, Survival

  4 Copy quote

• Tom Hanks, who starred in 'The Da Vinci Code,' turns out to be related to a number of the historic characters that feature in 'The Da Vinci Code,' including William the Conqueror and Shakespeare.

  Steven Pinker

  Character, Numbers, Historic

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

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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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• 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.

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• If the cartoon were completely accurate, though, life would be a cacophany of spoinks.

  Steven Pinker

  Cartoon, Would Be, Accurate

  4 Copy quote

• Disgust is intuitive microbiology

  Steven Pinker

  Microbiology, Disgusting, Intuitive

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.383, W. W. Norton & Company

  18 Copy quote

• The supposedly immaterial soul, we now know, can be bisected with a knife, altered by chemicals, started or stopped by electricity, and extinguished by a sharp blow or by insufficient oxygen.

  Steven Pinker

  Blow, Oxygen, Knives

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.64, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the researchers and anyone who would claim to have discovered the opposite. No one needs a scientist to measure whether humans are prone to knavery. The question has been answered in the history books, the newspapers, the ethnographic record, and the letters to Ann Landers. But people treat it like an open question, as if someday science might discover that it's all a bad dream and we will wake up to find that it is human nature to love one another.

  Steven Pinker

  Dream, Selfish, Book

  "How the Mind Works". Book by Steven Pinker, 1997.

  5 Copy quote

• We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.

  Steven Pinker

  Children, Views, Law

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.480, Penguin

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• Forcing modern speakers of English to not - whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much sense as forcing modern residents of England to wear laurels and togas.

  Steven Pinker

  Latin, Writing, Editing

  Steven Pinker (1994). “The Language Instinct”, William Morrow & Company

  16 Copy quote

• An ideology can provide a satisfying narrative that explains chaotic events and collective misfortunes in a way that flatters the virtue and competence of believers, while being vague or conspiratorial enough to withstand skeptical scrutiny.

  Steven Pinker

  Events, Narrative, Way

  "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined". Book by Steven Pinker, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2011.

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• Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely to breed dangerous subcultures of rootless young men.

  Steven Pinker

  Moving, Men, Empowering

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.16, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• Theories of art carry the seeds of their own destruction.

  Steven Pinker

  Art, Destruction, Theory

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.523, W. W. Norton & Company

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

  Steven Pinker

  Enemy, Defeat, Resources

  4 Copy quote

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