Robert Sapolsky

I was not especially a writer back in college.

— Robert Sapolsky

You don't want to end up telling somebody who's homeless or a refugee that stress is all perceptual, because it sure isn't…

— Robert Sapolsky

I think the relationship between social-dominance orientation in people and the extent to which they're made uncomfortable by ambiguity and novelty is…

— Robert Sapolsky

Depression is like the worst disease you can get. It's devastating.

— Robert Sapolsky

Juvenile justice is probably the area that's most ripe for reform, in the nice liberal sense of the word, simply because there's…

— Robert Sapolsky

When it comes to how neuroscience could help the wider public, the worst thing is when we make advances in, say, mindfulness,…

— Robert Sapolsky

To do good science, you've got to work really, really hard.

— Robert Sapolsky

Literal cleanliness and orderliness can release us from abstract cognitive and affective distress - just consider how, during moments where life seems…

— Robert Sapolsky

“Words unconsciously shift thoughts and feelings. One person's 'terrorist' is another's 'freedom fighter'; politicians jockey to commandeer 'family values,' and somehow you…

— Robert Sapolsky

I think you get to a time in life where by definition stuff's turning to quicksand and wherever you can get some…

— Robert Sapolsky

Being president does seem a lot more stressful than being vice president.

— Robert Sapolsky

If a male primate is mean to a female primate, her whole family will come after him. We don't have that sort…

— Robert Sapolsky

When humans invented material inequality, they came up with a way of subjugating the low-ranking like nothing ever seen before in the…

— Robert Sapolsky

Authoritarians have always been here. But the features of a given moment make that way of thinking more or less appealing. Germany…

— Robert Sapolsky

The key thing about us is that we all belong to multiple tribes. Even if we are predisposed into dividing the world…

— Robert Sapolsky

My roots, in college, were in behavior in the context of evolution.

— Robert Sapolsky

My lab looks at the ability of stress hormones to kill brain cells, and basically we are trying to understand on a…

— Robert Sapolsky

If I were to try to break into the world of modern dance, after the first few rejections the logical response might…

— Robert Sapolsky

For 99 percent of the beasts on this planet, stress is about three minutes of screaming in terror after which it's either…

— Robert Sapolsky

Yes, genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function,…

— Robert Sapolsky

“Willpower is more than just a metaphor; self-control is a finite resource.”

— Robert Sapolsky

I was very sheltered, very bookish and, basically, skittish about life. My parents were both older when I came along and they…

— Robert Sapolsky

There's a science to what sort of people we're attracted to, and it has to do with everything from how similar they…

— Robert Sapolsky

The United States has the biggest discrepancy in health and longevity between our wealthiest and our poorest of any country on Earth.

— Robert Sapolsky

We're a miserably violent species. But there's a complication, which is we don't hate violence, we hate the wrong kind. And when…

— Robert Sapolsky