Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.

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.

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.

Make Me Crazy. Make me nuts! I don’t care as long as you’re here. With me.

The harder you work the luckier you get.

Anybody can get worked up, if they have the intention. It's peacefulness that is hard to come by on purpose.

When you love fashion, there is no weekend. Everything just blends together.

All the fame and fortune, glory and prestige, can't make me happy if it goes against what I believe.

If an Englishman gets run down by a truck he apologizes to the truck.

If somebody gives me a joint, I might smoke it, but I don't go after it.

See who else is interested and join other people's projects that have already started that you like. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel and start your own thing.

The day misspent, the love misplaced, has inside it the seed of redemption. Nothing is exempt from resurrection.

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.