All Steven Pinker Quotes
- I spent 20 years doing research on regular and irregular verbs, not because I'm an obsessive language lover but because it seemed to me that… Cognitive
- I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about socialism and humanism… Course
- I think this confusion leads intellectuals and artists themselves to believe that the elite arts and humanities are a kind of higher, exalted form of… Art
- I try to jog in every city I visit, and I particularly enjoy harbour-front paths that let me ogle big ships, railroad bridges and the… Big
- If crime is going down, you shouldn't be increasing resources for crime prevention. Or you should be taking note of what has worked and concentrate… Concentrate
- If you aren't just brought up in your tribe but interact with other people either directly or vicariously, through journalism and literature, you see what… Brought
- If you look in general at people who live in anarchy, they have quite high rates of death from either homicide or warfare or both.… Anarchy
- In the 1970s, many intellectuals had become political radicals. Marxism was correct, liberalism was for wimps, and Marx had pronounced that 'the ruling ideas of… Age
- No one knows what the nongenetic causes of individuality are. Perhaps people are shaped by modifications of genes that take place after conception, or by… Brain
- Northeastern and most coastal states will vote for the candidate who is more closely aligned with international cooperation and engagement, secularism and science, gun control,… Aligned
- Obviously no language is innate. Take any kid from any race, bring them up in any culture and they will learn the language equally quickly.… Ability
- Of course, genes can't pull the levers of our behavior directly. But they affect the wiring and workings of the brain, and the brain is… Affect
- One of my favourite kinds of movie is the American picaresque, in which the characters make their way across the country, learning about life against… Across
- One of the things that people complain about is loneliness, disconnectedness. If you live in a society where your life is rarely threatened and most… Bases
- 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… Accept
- 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… Action
- Plants can't very well defend themselves by their behavior, so they resort to chemical warfare, and plants are saturated with toxins and irritants to deter… Behavior
- Probably Hobbes got it right when he said that a leviathan, a third party with a monopoly on the use of legitimate use of force… Among
- 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… Blame
- Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the… Anchored