Social networks are these intricate things of beauty, and they're so elaborate and so complex and so ubiquitous that one has to ask what purpose they serve.

It used to be thought that our genes were historically immutable and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics.

It is well to look around at whom, and not just what, surrounds us. Population structure will change everything. Our health, wealth, and peace depend on it.

Everyday interactions we have with other people are definitely contagious, in terms of happiness.

What constrains or enables the capacity of human beings to work in groups is not so much the technology, but rather the capacity of the human brain to have and monitor social interactions.

We cannot understand our humanity just by studying individuals.

The reason we form networks is because the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs. It's to our advantage as individuals and a species to assemble ourselves in this fashion.

I like to have met someone in real life before being their Facebook friend.

It's fashionable to speak about vulnerable populations in medicine and public policy, but it's harder to find a more vulnerable population than those who are dying.

People have just assumed that... if we call our Facebook acquaintances our friends, we must be influenced by them, too. But we're not.

My entire youth was spent with an incredibly ill parent... I don't think you can grow up that way and not be marked by that experience.

Education is the manifestation and evolution of the knowledge that is already inherent within you.

Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.

Wilderness, then, assumes unexpected importance as a laboratory for the study of land - health.

A man who can beat the horses can do anything he makes up his mind to do.

I do feel there's certainly some films where you can feel that the directors don't care about the genre and they don't care about their characters.

I never knew where babies came from until it happened to me.

Coming close to what you thought you wanted can help you attain what you never dreamed you could.

No wonder you want to be a writer. How can you not, with all that behind you? You practically are a novel already.

I love ebola jokes. When done in the right way, maybe it gets people to learn about ebola, to learn about the stigmas behind the identities held by Africans and so on.

It's always a struggle to make things sound more or less brilliant.