Pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.

The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.

Natural selection is not the only process that changes organisms over time. But is the only process that seemingly designs organisms over time.

If you give people literacy, bad ideas can be attacked and experiments tried, and lessons will accumulate.

People have long assumed that violence is necessary for political change. Rulers never cede power voluntarily, the argument goes, so progressives have no choice but to contemplate the use of force to bring about a better world, mindful of the trade-off between a small amount of violence now and acceptance of an unjust status quo indefinitely.

Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing things - not because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice.

The likelihood that inborn differences are one contributor to social status does not mean that it is the only contributor.