The human brain is the only object in the known universe that can predict its own future and tell its on fortune. The fact that we can make disastrous decisions even as we foresee their consequences is the great, unsolved mystery of human behavior. When you hold your fate in your hands, why would you ever make a fist?

If I wanted to know what a certain future would feel like to me, I would find someone who is already living that future. If I wonder what it's like to become a lawyer or marry a busy executive or eat at a particular restaurant, my best bet is to find people who have actually done these things and see how happy they are.

We don't believe other people's experiences can tell us all that much about our own. I think this is an illusion of uniqueness.

The eye and brain are conspirators, and, like most conspiracies, theirs is negotiated behind closed doors, in the back room, outside of our awareness.

People are happiest when they're trying to achieve goals that are difficult but not out of reach.

Humans react to danger when it is immediate, immoral, visible... Global warming does not press any of those buttons.

Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished.