Most wars are not fought over shortages of resources such as food and water, but rather over conquest, revenge, and ideology.

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.

Smiling is the most powerful exercise to build a joyful mind and a blissful heart.

Be nice to your children. They may grow up to be writers.

By the single example of this painter devoted to his art with such independence, my destiny as a painter opened out to me.

He doesn't translate well into our generation.

In the Church the transformative power of the Eucharist is experienced through the dignified celebration of Holy Mass, and people are empowered for mission because of that.

I always had this romantic notion of living in New York. I just felt like, everyone could be different and weird and whatever they are in New York.

Vehement writing, even if it is charged with truth, is no answer to violent action.

Manners. Manners will get you through anything.

We were both in love with him. I fell out of love with him, but he didn't.