Caring, whether for children or the dying, shouldn't be instrumental. It should be an intrinsic, moral good.

I'm afraid the parenting advice to come out of developmental psychology is very boring: pay attention to your kids and love them.

Because we imagine, we can have invention and technology. It's actually play, not necessity, that is the mother of invention.

What's it like to be a baby? It's like being in love in Paris for the first time after you've had three double espressos.

Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning is more fundamental.

The more obsessively we focus on what a particular food is going to do for us, the less healthy we've become. Simple pleasures become complicated.

The brain is highly structured, but it is also extremely flexible. It's not a blank slate, but it isn't written in stone, either.

Animals are certainly more sophisticated than we used to think. And we shouldn't lump together animals as a group. Crows and chimps and dogs are all highly intelligent in very different ways.

The largest and most powerful computers are still no match for the smallest and weakest humans.

Babies and young children are like the research and development division of the human species, and we grown-ups are production and marketing.

What teenagers want most of all are social rewards, especially the respect of their peers.

Professionalism shouldn't be defined by a persons paycheck, role or title. It should be defined by a persons work ethic

To maintain peace in the world, first maintain peace inside of you. A restless mind can never generate beneficial ideas.

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.

I recall my dad saying about me once that the only time he'd ever heard me say 'never' was when I was asked if I'd had enough.

Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone.

A man doesn't say I will starve myself to death to keep from starving, or that he'd spend all of his money to save money. Why should he be willing to die for the privilege of living?

I went to drama school for three years, and the whole thing there is that hopefully you are introduced to a man called William Shakespeare who is the greatest of all time of all storytelling.

True stories are the ones that lie open at the border, allowing a crossing, a further frontier. The final frontier is just science fiction--don't believe it. Like the universe, there is no end.

You don't know which way a thing will come at you, but you need to welcome it with your whole heart which ever way it arrives.

I don't want a lot of good investments; I want a few outstanding ones.