92 Steven Pinker Quotes for You to Enjoy

Steven Pinker

Canadian Scientist

Born: Sep 18, 1954

Language Life People Think World You

Related authors: David Suzuki Frederick Banting Gad Saad Hans Selye Hugh Ross Orlando Aloysius Battista Sid Meier William Osler

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 haphazard fluctuations in the chemical soup in the womb or the wiring up of the brain or the expression of the genes themselves. Steven Pinker

My politics were pretty anarchistic until 1969 when the Montreal police went on strike. Within hours, mayhem and rioting broke out and the Mounties had to be called in to restore order. It instilled in me that one's convictions can be subjected to empirical test. Steven Pinker

Climate change could produce a lot of misery and waste without necessarily leading to large-scale armed conflict, which depends more on ideology and bad governance than on resource scarcity. Steven Pinker

Change Conflict Ideology Resource Bad Scarcity More Could Misery Leading Armed Without Climate Climate Change Governance Lot Than Depends Which Produce Large-Scale Waste Necessarily

An enormous amount of scientific language is metaphorical. We talk about a genetic code, where code originally meant a cipher; we talk about the solar system model of the atom as though the atom were like a sun and moon and planets. Steven Pinker

Language Solar Moon Enormous Solar System Sun Though System Atom About Genetic Like Talk Scientific Metaphorical Were Model Where Planets Meant Originally Code Amount

You could think of an ecosystem as a bunch of antagonistic arms races, almost: Everything that an animal depends upon for food is the body part of some other animal or plant who would just as soon keep that body part for itself. Steven Pinker

Food You Animal Plant Think Other Everything Would Some Could Part Almost Soon Almost Everything Ecosystem Arms Antagonistic Itself Bunch Just Depends Races Body Who Keep

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

Great Language Style Every Defied Thoughtful Logic Writers Tradition Been Oral Centuries Usage Manual Basis

All of the violence that doesn't occur doesn't get reported on the news. Steven Pinker

News Occur Get Reported Violence

I think that a failure of statistical thinking is the major intellectual shortcoming of our universities, journalism and intellectual culture. Steven Pinker

Failure Culture Think Thinking Our Statistical Journalism Major Intellectual Universities

Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing things - not because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice. Steven Pinker

Single Community Everyone Way Abide Advantage Because Within Making Doing Same Any Conventions Choice Inherent Agreements Things

Mother Teresa was the very embodiment of saintliness: white-clad, sad-eyed, ascetic and often photographed with the wretched of the earth. Steven Pinker

Mother Earth Photographed Embodiment Wretched Mother Teresa Very Often Ascetic

We can make fun of hockey fans, but someone who enjoys Homer is indulging the same kind of vicarious bloodlust. Steven Pinker

Fans Kind Someone Indulging Make Same Hockey Who Fun Homer

Evolution is an indispensable component of any satisfying explanation of our psychology. Steven Pinker

Our Evolution Component Indispensable Any Psychology Explanation Satisfying

There's a misconception that survival of the fittest means survival of the most aggressive. The adjective 'Darwinian' used to refer to ruthless competition; you used to read that in business journals. But that's not what Darwinian means to a biologist; it's whatever leads to reproductive success. Steven Pinker

Tom Hanks, who starred in 'The Da Vinci Code,' turns out to be related to a number of the historic characters that feature in 'The Da Vinci Code,' including William the Conqueror and Shakespeare. Steven Pinker

Related William Out Characters Shakespeare Feature Historic Turns Who Tom Including Tom Hanks Code Conqueror Starred Number

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

Brilliant Reputation Say Out No-One Understand May Turning They Say

A decent government with an effective, but not gratuitously violent, police force and a fair court system are essential. This deters and incapacitates psychopaths, bullies and hotheads - and if it earns the confidence of the people, they don't have to become violent in self-defence. Steven Pinker

Government Confidence People Police Become System Self-Defence Fair Police Force Force Court Bullies Effective Essential Decent Violent

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

You World Important Unless Astrology Ancient About Something Shakespeare Had Know Understand Important Role Role Many Things Plays

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

Learning Language Long Paper Student Journal Development Between Major Wrote Mathematical Models Graduate Graduate Student Children Dots Connecting Published

I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books. Steven Pinker

Time Rest Year Research Books Classes Weeks Write Teach

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. Steven Pinker

World Society Corner Consider Visual Visual Arts Would Something Had Discovered Human Arts Bodies Decoration Appears Ever Universal

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