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The human brain is an exquisitely complex organ that evolved only once. The elephant's trunk, which can stack logs, uproot trees, pick up a dime, remove thorns, powder the elephant with dust, siphon water, serve as a snorkel, and scribble with a pencil, is another complex organ that evolved only once.

— Steven Pinker How the Mind Works (1997)

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More quotes by Steven Pinker

Status is the public knowledge that you possess assets that would allow you to help others if you wished to.

How the Mind Works (1997)

Genes are a play within a play, not the interior monologue of the players."

How the Mind Works (1997)

As an experimental psychologist, I have been trained not to believe anything unless it can be demonstrated in the laboratory on rats or sophomores.

Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language (1999)

Logicians tell us that a system of ideas containing a contradiction can be used to deduce any statement whatsoever, no matter how absurd.

I predict it will come to be seen as a turning point in the history of psychology.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Steven Pinker (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.