All Steven Pinker Quotes
- Everyone's pedigree merges into everyone else's pedigree. So if you go back far enough, everyone is related. Back Far
- Heritability pertains to the entirety of the genome, not to a single gene. Entirety
- I don't consider myself to be that radical a thinker. Consider
- I don't think aggression works like thirst or sleep. I think aggression is more elicited by particular situations. I think it can be mitigated. Aggression
- I get drawn in when I feel there is something deep and mysterious going on beneath the surface of something. Beneath
- I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life. Ask
- I never outgrew my conversion to atheism at 13, but at various times was a serious cultural Jew. Atheism
- I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books. Book
- If anything, Powerpoint, if used well, would ideally reflect the way we think. Ideally
- If you give people literacy, bad ideas can be attacked and experiments tried, and lessons will accumulate. Accumulate
- Language is a window into human nature, but it is also a fistula, an open wound through which we're exposed to an infectious world. Exposed
- Language mavens commonly confuse their own peeves with a worsening of the language. Commonly
- Like the early days of the Internet, the dawn of personal genomics promises benefits and pitfalls that no one can foresee. Benefits
- M.I.T. has a reputation for turning out Dilberts. They may be brilliant in what they do, but no one can understand what they say. Brilliant
- Most intellectuals today have a phobia of any explanation of the mind that invokes genetics. Any
- Most wars are not fought over shortages of resources such as food and water, but rather over conquest, revenge, and ideology. Conquest
- Mother Teresa was the very embodiment of saintliness: white-clad, sad-eyed, ascetic and often photographed with the wretched of the earth. Ascetic
- No matter how inured you get to atrocities, you're still always stunned and shocked by how cruel and wasteful Homo sapiens can be. Always Stunned
- One of the perks of being a psychologist is access to tools that allow you to carry out the injunction to know thyself. Access
- Paris Hilton, it turns out, is related to fellow celebrity jailbirds Zsa Zsa Gabor and G. Gordon Liddy. Celebrity