Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's highest callings.

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.

The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?

Creating characters is easy. It’s getting them to behave that’s the problem.

If you became grateful, right now, for everything that ever happened in your past, how would that impact your view of the future?

Donald Rumsfeld is the most ruthless man I have ever met? and I mean that as a compliment.

Putting the 10 commandments up to prevent crime is like putting 'Employees must wash hands' up to keep the piss out of your burger.

Miracles never cease to amaze me. I expect them, but their consistent arrival is always delightful to experience.

if one of us falls, we all fall

All you have to do is do a little bit of research and a floodgate of material comes your way.

I want to be remembered for my dreams.

Socialize the individual's surplus and you socialize his spirit and creativeness.