101 Quotes by Maria Konnikova

We tend to dismiss things we don't particularly like, or that we find disturbing, as aberrations.

The fact that insomnia is associated with depression suggests that sleep might help us deal with emotionally stressful or otherwise disruptive events.

Humans are the most complicated, nuanced things that exist. We can't be reduced to labels or summed up with five traits - even if they are the Big Five.

Thinking about time travel may seem like something humans have been doing since the first caveman dropped the first rock on his foot. But, even to begin to imagine the possibility of time travel, your mind must be able to wrap itself around the notion of a past and a future.

Perhaps one day we'll be able to identify and block not just scams but the scammers themselves - before they even target their first victim.

Our lives don't make sense in abstraction, only when compared with the lives of others.

People want to protect their way of life, and when they think it's in danger they start grasping for more extreme-seeming alternatives.

At least in the U.S., the party you believe in plays a big role in how you conceive of yourself. It feels good to think that your party is smarter, and that the smarts are what drive people to your party.

And, when it comes to politics, it can be awfully difficult to put your desires aside and to acknowledge that the world is a much messier place, where open-minded people might be conservative and liberals may well be conscientious.