Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.

Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language.

Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage?

All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on.

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties.

Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.

Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn "x" (t gts lttl hrdr f y dn't vn kn whr th vwls r)

Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.

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.

I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.

We will never have a perfect world, but it's not romantic or naive to work toward a better one.

To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.

The only way to know the honesty of any person is to love them without desire.

Laughter is involuntary. If it's funny you laugh.

It is a part of probability that many improbable things will happen.

Emotional abuse is like being continuously kicked in the shins. It can be worse than getting one punch in the face, and it cements itself.

I'm going to Heaven just like the thief on the cross who said in that last moment: 'Lord, remember me.'

The total amount paid out in dividends is roughly equal to the amount lost in trading and investment advice, so net dividends to shareholders are zero. This is a very peculiar way to run a republic.

I tell girls, 'If you're tall and feel too tall, the answer is to be taller.'

It is an embarrassment that the dominant forms of matter in the universe remain hypothetical.

Your timing is amazing," Kami told him. "By which I mean, I am amazed by it.