Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.

The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering.

In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be.

We want to be special. We want our place in the cosmos to be central. We want evolution-even godless evolution-to have been directed toward us so that we stand at the pinnacle of nature's ladder of progress. Rewind the tape of life and we want to believe that we (Homo Sapiens) would appear again and again. Would we? Probably not.

We want to be open-minded enough to accept radial new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don't want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.

Humans evolved brains that are pattern-recognition machines, adept at detecting signals that enhance or threaten survival amid a very noisy world. ... But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.

Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning.