I personally am not conscious of my accent.

Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial in tipping the outcomes [of the various societies' histories] towards success or failure: long-term planning and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives.

All human societies go through fads in which they temporarily either adopt practices of little use or else abandon practices of considerable use.

Science is often misrepresented as "the body of knowledge acquired by performing replicated controlled experiments in the laboratory." Actually, science is something broader: the acquisition of reliable knowledge about the world.

I'd rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun.

Perhaps our greatest distinction as a species is our capacity, unique among animals, to make counter-evolutionary choices.

Even to this day, no native Australian animal species and only one plant species-the macadamia nut-have proved suitable for domestication. There still are no domestic kangaroos.