We will never have a perfect world, but it’s not romantic or naïve to work toward a better one. - Steven Pinker
When it comes to correct English, there's no one in charge; the lunatics are running the asylum. - Steven Pinker
[...] nonstate conflicts kill far fewer people than conflicts that involve a government, perhaps a quarter as many. Again, this is not surprising, since goverments almost by definition are in the violence business. - Steven Pinker
Many artists and scholars have pointed out that ultimately art depends on human nature. - Steven Pinker
By exploring the political and moral colorings of discoveries about what makes us tick, we can have a more honest science and a less fearful intellectual milieu. - Steven Pinker
One [dogma] is that violence is caused by a deficit of morality and justice. On the contrary, violence is often caused by a surfeit of morality and justice, at least as they are conceived in the minds of the perpetrators. - Steven Pinker
Sex and excretion are reminders that anyone's claim to round-the-clock dignity is tenuous. The so-called rational animal has a desperate drive to pair up and moan and writhe. - Steven Pinker
...the [mental] organization of grammar [is] a case where complexity in the mind is not caused by learning; learning is caused by complexity in the mind. - Steven Pinker
As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones. - Steven Pinker