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I don't think there was a thunderclap or a divine spark that suddenly made one species smart. You can see, in our ancestors, there was a gradual expansion of the brain; there was an expansion of the complexity of tools.

— Steven Pinker

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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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Attribution

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.