In societies no less than individuals, acknowledging our limitations may ultimately be more humane than denying them.

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

M.I.T. has a reputation for turning out Dilberts. They may be brilliant in what they do, but no one can understand what they say.

The rules of friendship are tacit, unconscious; they are not rational. In business, though, you have to think rationally.

We instinctively fear snakes, but we appear not to be afraid of fast cars, which are a real danger now. This suggests our emotions were shaped by our evolutionary environment not the one we grew up in.

[Napoleon deployed] every available resource to inflict all-out defeats on [his] enemies.

You know that when Irving puts the dog in the car, it is no longer in the yard. When Edna goes to church, her head goes with her. If Doug is in the house, he must have gone through some opening unless he was born there and never left. If Sheila is alive at 9 A.M. and is alive at 5 P.M., she was also alive at noon. Zebras in the wild never wear underwear. Opening a jar of a new brand of peanut butter will not vaporize the house. People never shove meat thermometers in their ears. A gerbil is smaller than Mt. Kilimanjaro.