Steven Pinker Quotes (186 quotes)

Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Violence and religion have often gone together, but it's not a perfect correlation, and it doesn't have to be a permanent connection, because religions themselves change.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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 in a territory, might be among the biggest violence reduction techniques ever invented.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Jews are known for many things, but strength, swiftness, and agility are not among them. There is one trait, as controversial as it is familiar, for which Jews are above all known, and that is shrewdness in business.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„I've never argued that humans are massively hot-wired. What I was trying to point out was that you can't understand how we learn unless you identify the learning mechanisms. And these have some genetic basis.“
― 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
„However much we might deplore the profit motive, or consumerist values, if everyone just wants i-Pods we would probably be better off than if they wanted class revolution.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„20th-century totalitarian movements were no more defined by a rejection of Judeo-Christianity than they were defined by a rejection of astrology, alchemy, Confucianism, Scientology, or any of hundreds of other belief systems.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books. While I'm writing a book, which I probably do two out of every three years, it's like having a second job. I squeeze in the hours when I can.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„For one thing, before the 20th century, there were plenty of genocides. We tend to forget about them, partly because they weren't as well documented and partly because, until recently, people didn't care. We used euphemisms like 'sackings' and 'sieges' instead of calling them 'genocides.'“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Commerce is a noble profession, and Jews should get over any self-hatred they might harbor from contemplating the capitalist spirit of diaspora Judaism.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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 each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.'“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„As a graduate student, I wrote a long paper connecting the dots between mathematical models of learning and language development in children. It was published in a major journal.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„You wouldn't believe the kind of hate mail I get about my work on irregular verbs.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„The more you think about and interact with other people, the more you realize that it is untenable to privilege your interests over theirs.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„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.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„The decline of violence is a fractal phenomenon. You can see it over millennia, over centuries, over decades and over years.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„Like the early days of the Internet, the dawn of personal genomics promises benefits and pitfalls that no one can foresee.“
― Steven Pinker ―
Picture of quotation author Steven Pinker
„I'm very interested in language because it reflects our obsessions and ways of conceptualising the world.“
― Steven Pinker ―

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Author information

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

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