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.
From Steven Pinker
Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives each of us the sense that we are worthy human beings.
Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.
There is no society ever discovered in the remotest corner of the world that has not had something that we would consider the arts. Visual arts - decoration of surfaces and bodies - appears to be a human universal.
I learned to focus my energy on high-quality, long-term projects rather than lower-quality projects with quicker payoffs.
My worst boss was a departmental chair who never learned to appreciate new developments in the field. He had contempt for students and younger researchers, and he saw the job of running the department as a nuisance.
I do look for openings where I can overturn popular misconceptions, but unlike Christopher Hitchens, I am neither a contrarian nor a lone heretic. I like to have a significant number of academics watching my back.
We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive drives.
You wouldn't believe the kind of hate mail I get about my work on irregular verbs.
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.
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