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"Computation has finally demystified mentalistic terms. Beliefs are inscriptions in memory, desires are goal inscriptions, thinking is computation, perceptions are inscriptions triggered by sensors, trying is executing operations triggered by a goal."
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"Could it be that all those reports coming from our own intelligence that Bush ignored was right all along? Could it be that the UN was right all along?"

"It is easy to be intelligent, but it is very difficult to be wise because wisdom comes from experience."

"Our head is designed to broaden our capability of analyzing facts, events and draw the right conclusions."

"Three-quarters of the sicknesses of intelligent people come from their intelligence. They need at least a doctor who can understand this sickness."

"To have contrary [negative, wrong] intellect has become an odd rule in this current era, hasn't it? The one who proceeds with caution will win."

"Every part of you is a master intelligence and is speaking truth to you, and through you, at all times."

"Intelligence does not always define wisdom, but adaptability to change does."

"It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results."

"Intelligence is often worshiped, even when that intelligence allows unfathomable injustice and suffering to occur under its smart watch."

"Your total intelligence knows exactly what to do, because you were made to weather the storms of life."
Explore more quotes by Steven Pinker


"Much can be gained be contrasting a theory with its alternatives, even ones that look too extreme to be true. You can really understand something when you know what it is not."


"The violence of a lower-class man may indeed express rage, but it is aimed not at society but at the asshole who scraped his car and dissed him in front of a crowd."


"Reading is a technology for perspective-taking. When someone else's thoughts are in your head, you are observing the world from that person's vantage point."


"In hermetic isolation, all kinds of bizarre and toxic ideas can fester. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and exposing a bad idea to the critical glare of other minds provides at least a chance that it will wither and die."


"Legal investigation. As Clinton noted, "My goal in this deposition was to be truthful, but not particularly helpful."


"Organisms are selected to deploy violence only in circumstances where the expected benefits outweigh the expected costs."


"Language-lovers know that there is a word for every fear. Are you afraid of wine? Then you have oenophobia. Tremulous about train travel? You suffer from siderodromophobia. Having misgivings about your mother-in-law is pentheraphobia, and being petrified of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth is arachibutyrophobia. And then there's Franklin Delano Roosevelt's affliction, the fear of fear itself, or phobophobia."


"People today think of the world as a uniquely dangerous place. It’s hard to follow the news without feeling a mounting dread of terrorist attacks, a clash of civilizations, and the use of weapons of mass destruction. But we often forget the dangers that filled the news a few decades ago and become blasé about the good fortune that so many of them have fizzled out."
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