Steven Pinker Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Steven Pinker quotes, Steven Pinker sayings, and Steven Pinker proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

The likelihood that inborn differences are one contributor to social status does not mean that it is the only contributor. Steven Pinker
Racism, because it favors color over talent, is bad for business. Steven Pinker
Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics. Steven Pinker
Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control. Steven Pinker
Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle individuals should not be judged or constrained by the average properties of their group. Steven Pinker
Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely to breed dangerous subcultures of rootless young men. Steven Pinker
As women are empowered, violence can come down, for a number of reasons. By all measures, men are the more violent gender. Steven Pinker
Societies that empower women are less violent in every way. Steven Pinker
The stirrings of morality emerge early in childhood. Toddlers spontaneously offer toys and help to others and try to comfort people they see in distress. Steven Pinker
Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence, accident, or disease. Steven Pinker
A design can excel at one challenge only by compromising at others. Steven Pinker
We often feel that a clever aphorism captures a truth that would require pages to defend in any other way. Steven Pinker
A sense of solidarity among fifteen-to-thirty-year-olds would be a menace to civilized society even in the best of times. Steven Pinker
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 as a sign of sophistication, it can be an opportunity for one-upmanship and an excuse for misanthropy, especially against the young. Steven Pinker
Equity feminism is a moral doctrine about equal treatment that makes no commitments regarding open empirical issues in psychology or biology. Steven Pinker
Anything that makes it easier to imagine trading places with someone else increases your moral consideration for that other person. Steven Pinker
Astrology had an important role in the ancient world. You can't understand many things unless you know something about astrology - the plays of Shakespeare and so on. 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
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
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
Personality and socialization aren't the same thing. Steven Pinker
Some people believe that the nuclear bomb should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, since it scared the major powers away from war by equating it with doomsday. Steven Pinker
We are visual creatures. Visual things stay put, whereas sounds fade. Steven Pinker
But in most cases even the possibility that the correlations reflect shared genes is taboo. Steven Pinker
Unfortunately, creative people are at their most creative when writing their autobiographies. Steven Pinker
Genetically influenced behavior is not necessarily good and not necessarily unchangeable. Explanations of bad behavior that appeal to genes do not absolve a person any more than do explanations that appeal to upbringing. Steven Pinker
It's misleading to essentialize an entire society as if it were a single mind. Steven Pinker
The elegant study... is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience . Every aspect of thought and emotion is rooted in brain structure and function, including many psychological disorders and, presumably, genius. The study confirms that the brain is a modular system comprising multiple intelligences, mostly nonverbal. Steven Pinker
Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle that individuals should not be judged or constrained by the average properties of their group. Steven Pinker
Ancestor worship must be an appealing idea to those who are about to become ancestors. Steven Pinker