People aren't rational. We're not thinking machines, we're - we're feeling machines that happen to think.

If believing absurd falsehoods increase the odds of getting laid or avoiding predators, your brain will believe those falsehoods with all its metaphorical little heart.

What's the survival value of obsessing on a sunset?

I am the bridge between the bleeding edge and the dead center. I stand between the Wizard of Oz and the man behind the curtain. I am the curtain.

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: You hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the speech from the screams.

If the rest of your brain were conscious, it would probably regard you as the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert

The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest.