People aren't rational. We're not thinking machines, we're - we're feeling machines that happen to think.

There's no such things as survival of the fittest. Survival of the most adequate, maybe. It doesn't matter whether a solution's optimal. All that matters is whether it beats the alternative.

The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest.

But when the flash flood crosses your path, when the lion leaps at you from the grasses, advanced self-awareness is an unaffordable indulgence. The brain stem does its best.

Science is so powerful that it drags us kicking and screaming towards the truth despite our best efforts to avoid it.

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: You hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the speech from the screams.

I am the bridge between the bleeding edge and the dead center. I stand between the Wizard of Oz and the man behind the curtain. I am the curtain.

What's the difference between being dead, and just not knowing you're alive?

Radar is too long in the tooth for fine detail.

But pattern-matching doesn't equal comprehension.

I really wanted to talk to her. I just couldn't find an algorithm that fit.

A slice is a loaf to a mouse.

The universe always gives you more of what you are focusing on.

there are many Africas.

The federal government can't remodel every firehouse and buy every new policeradio in the name of Homeland Security.

What I think the mentor gets is the great satisfaction of helping somebody along, helping somebody take advantage of an opportunity that maybe he or she did not have.

Heritage will remain, first and foremost, a research institute dedicated to impeccable research and data-driven policy analysis.

There’s fish in here that I’ve read about that are so see-through that they’re invisible. So I don’t even think they know they exist.

Whatever is flexible and living will tend to grow; whatever is rigid and blocked will wither and die.

People never realize how much work impacts there self esteem and sense of purpose until they leave a job.

That is the beauty of cancer, it tells you that your days are limited, that you could die at any point. It is that perspective that allows you to live a better life while you're here.