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" Language mavens commonly confuse their own peeves with a worsening of the language. "
Steven Pinker
Own
Language
Commonly
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" Regardless of its causes, thoughtlessly blaming the present is a weakness which, even if it is never outlawed, ought to be resisted. Though commonly flaunted as a sign of sophistication, it can be an opportunity for one-upmanship and an excuse for misanthropy, especially against the young. "
Steven Pinker
Weakness
Opportunity
Young
" I've never argued that humans are massively hot-wired. What I was trying to point out was that you can't understand how we learn unless you identify the learning mechanisms. And these have some genetic basis. "
Steven Pinker
Learning
Understand
You
" The human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing. "
Steven Pinker
Presence
Compassion
Human
" The stirrings of morality emerge early in childhood. Toddlers spontaneously offer toys and help to others and try to comfort people they see in distress. "
Steven Pinker
Help
Comfort
Early
" I think that if you were to probe a lot of people's religious opinions, they would not be as religious as the numbers would suggest. "
Steven Pinker
Numbers
Think
People
" Obviously no language is innate. Take any kid from any race, bring them up in any culture and they will learn the language equally quickly. So no particular language is in the genes. But what might be in the genes is the ability to acquire language. "
Steven Pinker
Language
Kid
Up
" I do look for openings where I can overturn popular misconceptions, but unlike Christopher Hitchens, I am neither a contrarian nor a lone heretic. I like to have a significant number of academics watching my back. "
Steven Pinker
Watching
I Am
I Can
" Astrology had an important role in the ancient world. You can't understand many things unless you know something about astrology - the plays of Shakespeare and so on. "
Steven Pinker
Understand
Know
World
" People today sometimes get uncomfortable with empirical claims that seem to clash with their political assumptions, often because they haven't given much thought to the connections. "
Steven Pinker
Political
Seem
Today
" I think it may not be a coincidence that the rise of printing and book publication and literacy and the phenomenon of best sellers all preceded the humanitarian reforms of the Enlightenment. "
Steven Pinker
Think
Book
Best
" There is a correlation between economic inequality and personal violence. The explanation for the correlation isn't completely clear; there are a number of possibilities. "
Steven Pinker
Possibilities
Violence
Inequality
" All of the violence that doesn't occur doesn't get reported on the news. "
Steven Pinker
Get
News
Reported
" Anything that makes it easier to imagine trading places with someone else increases your moral consideration for that other person. "
Steven Pinker
Moral
Person
Places
" My opinions about human nature are shared by many psychologists, linguists, and biologists, not to mention philosophers and scholars going back centuries. "
Steven Pinker
Nature
Human Nature
Back
" Democracy is an imperfect way of steering between the violence of anarchy and the violence of tyranny, with the least violence you can get away with. "
Steven Pinker
Tyranny
Democracy
You
" Mother Teresa was the very embodiment of saintliness: white-clad, sad-eyed, ascetic and often photographed with the wretched of the earth. "
Steven Pinker
Wretched
Earth
Embodiment
" The European wars of religion were more deadly than the First World War, proportionally speaking, and in the range of the Second World War in Europe. The Inquisition, the persecution of heretics and infidels and witches, they racked up pretty high death tolls. "
Steven Pinker
World
Witches
Up
" Broadly speaking, the Southern and Western desert and mountain states will vote for the candidate who endorses an aggressive military, a role for religion in public life, laissez-faire economic policies, private ownership of guns and relaxed conditions for using them, less regulation and taxation, and a valorization of the traditional family. "
Steven Pinker
Family
Life
Mountain
" Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the relation of words to reality - the way that speakers commit themselves to a shared understanding of the truth, and the way their thoughts are anchored to things and situations in the world. "
Steven Pinker
World
Reality
Thoughts
" The reason I'm not a neurobiologist but a cognitive psychologist is that I think looking at brain tissue is often the wrong level of analysis. You have to look at a higher level of organization. "
Steven Pinker
Organization
You
Think
" Photography is a demanding action sport. The light can change so quickly. I often find myself sprinting so that I can catch the perfect light falling on a photogenic subject. "
Steven Pinker
Light
Action
Change
" 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
Science
Political
Moral
" The reason the United States is not so likely to invade Iran is precisely because of the lessons learned from Iraq. And conversely, the Iranian push towards nuclear capability is calculated to deter invasions like the kind deposing Saddam Husain. "
Steven Pinker
Like
Because
Reason
" People know there is a difference between what you do and what you accept. There is a difference between me knowing that people swear, me hearing people swear and me swearing, and everyone accepting that this is something you can do as much as you like. "
Steven Pinker
Know
Knowing
Me
" I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life. "
Steven Pinker
Going
Hockey
Like
" Probably Hobbes got it right when he said that a leviathan, a third party with a monopoly on the use of legitimate use of force in a territory, might be among the biggest violence reduction techniques ever invented. "
Steven Pinker
Party
Monopoly
Violence
" All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on. "
Steven Pinker
Magic
Reason
Result
" By all measures men are the more violent gender. "
Steven Pinker
Measures
Violent
More
" The way to understand how different species evolved is to think about the niches that they fill in an ecosystem - basically, how they make a living. "
Steven Pinker
Living
Way
Understand
" I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift. "
Steven Pinker
Moment
Gift
Life