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.

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.

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.

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.

Don’t be stupider than you need to be, I remind myself. Remember Calease? The last glowing girl you talked to tried to kill you.

The shock of any trauma, I think changes your life. It's more acute in the beginning and after a little time you settle back to what you were. However it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche.

The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion.

Most people don't realize that it's not just minorities who don't do well in science and engineering - quite frankly, you're talking about Americans.

Before history is written down in books, it is written in courage.

Science cannot resolve moral conflicts, but it can help to more accurately frame the debates about those conflicts.

Your ideas need not have anything to do with reality. Making conclusions is a sure way of not enhancing our perception.

Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind.

Time is not money. Time is worth way more than money.

My proudest moment of my career was opening night in Cambridge and watching the cast take their curtain call. No one was looking at me, and I was floating off the ground. It was just euphoric.