There has to be innate circuitry that does the learning, that creates the culture, that acquires the culture, and that responds to socialization.

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.

Still the most magical day of my life was the day I became a mom.

I felt the pain and the glory of growth, was straining and shuddering with it.

Your God's given potential is far too great to ever dare to bargain for anything less than a victorious life. Therefore, it's time to rise to the challenge and push beyond your fears and doubts.

I have never been nervous in all my life and I have no patience with people who are. If you know what you are going to do you have no reason to be nervous. And I knew what I was going to do.

When [actors] are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.

The four most miserable years of my life were my four years in the presidency.

I've managed stations.

The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments.

The American language differs from the English in that it seeks the top of expression while English seeks its lowly valleys.

Poetry ... is the music and painting of the mind.