Steven Pinker Quotes (55 quotes)

Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„As every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to deny that other people have feelings is not just an academic exercise but an all-too-common vice, as we see in the long history of human cruelty.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„The decline of violence isn't a steady inclined plane from an original state of maximal and universal bloodshed. Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„By exploring the political and moral colorings of discoveries about what makes us tick, we can have a more honest science and a less fearful intellectual milieu.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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 ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity - which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey a message and continue to negotiate that relationship.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„My opinions about human nature are shared by many psychologists, linguists, and biologists, not to mention philosophers and scholars going back centuries.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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 ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage?“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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 is one of the main reasons for violence, and it may be the most important.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„The European wars of religion were more deadly than the First World War, proportionally speaking, and in the range of the Second World War in Europe. The Inquisition, the persecution of heretics and infidels and witches, they racked up pretty high death tolls.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Words let us say the things we want to say and also things we would be better off not having said. They let us know the things we need to know, and also things we wish we didn't.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„We can make fun of hockey fans, but someone who enjoys Homer is indulging the same kind of vicarious bloodlust.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„America had, for one thing, lived in anarchy for - until much more recently than Europe. We had the Wild West, where the cliche of the cowboy movies was the nearest sheriff is 90 miles away, and so you had to pack a gun and defend yourself.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Racism, because it favors color over talent, is bad for business.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„As long as your ideology identifies the main source of the world's ills as a definable group, it opens the world up to genocide.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„I don't think language could have evolved if it was the only distinctive trait. It goes hand in hand with our ability to develop tools and technologies, and also with the fact that we cooperate with nonrelatives.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„It's likely that taboo words are stored in the right hemisphere of the brain. Massive left hemisphere strokes or the entire surgical removal of the left hemisphere can leave people with no articulate speech other than the ability to swear, spout cliches and song lyrics.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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 creatures like us who want to eat them.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„It's misleading to essentialize an entire society as if it were a single mind.“
― Steven Pinker ―

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Author information

Steven Pinker
Author born: September 18, 1954
Nationality: Canadian
Author Profession: Scientist

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