751 Quotes by Steven Pinker

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.

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

The starting point for becoming a good writer is to be a good reader.

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Good writing starts strong. Not with a cliché (“Since the dawn of time”), not with a banality (“Recently, scholars have been increasingly concerned with the question of…”), but with a contenful observation that provokes curiosity

As people ages, they confuse changes in themselves with changes in the world, and changes in the world with moral decline—the illusion of the good old days. And so every generation believes that the kids today are degrading the language and taking civilization down with it

En un viejo chiste, un orador callejero se dirige a una multitud hablando sobre las glorias del comunismo: -¡Cuando llegue la revolución, todos comerán fresas con nata!- Desde la parte delantera, un hombre exclama: -Pero ¡a mí no me gustan las fresas con nata!-El orador brama: -¡Cuando llegue la revolución, te gustarán las fresas con nata!

Lakoff is right to insist that conceptual metaphors are not just literary garnishes but aides to reason – they are ‘metaphors we live by.’ And metaphors can power sophisticated inferences, not just obvious ones…

Los líderes -autoritarios- emplean los formidables recursos del Estado para hostigar a la oposición, crear falsos partidos opositores, utilizar los medios de comunicación controlados por el Estado para propagar relatos favorables, manipular las reglas electorales, inclinar los registros de votantes y manipular las propias elecciones.

El populismo autoritario puede verse como la resistencia de ciertos elementos de la naturaleza humana -tribalismo, autoritarismo, demonización, pensamiento de suma cero- en contra de las instituciones ilustradas que fueron diseñadas para sortearlos.