In many surveys it turns out that every student, questioned privately, thinks that binge drinking is a terrible idea, but each is convinced that his peers think it's cool.

Steven Pinker

Humans can thrive on a modern vegetarian diet and animals' interests in a life free of pain and premature death surely outweigh the marginal increase in pleasure we get from eating their flesh.

Steven Pinker

Pain and humiliation distract children from pondering what they did wrong.

Steven Pinker

In 1987 only half of Americans thought it was always wrong for a man to strike his wife with a belt or stick.

Steven Pinker

The evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane, when asked whether he would lay down his life for his brother, replied, 'No, but for two brothers or eight cousins.'

Steven Pinker