Steven Pinker Quotes

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

My definition of good is that you understand that this is a question of power. That you be willing to give up some power. That you be willing to give up some resources.

There is no happiness for people at the expense of other people.

I've always tried to balance my life with what is good for me but also keeping in mind how it affects somebody else.

You do things for yourself, and you do things for other people, and you hope that these things coincide.

If you focus only on yourself and neglect others, you will lose; but you will gain if you value others as much as you cherish yourself.

It is the spread of the good things that vindicates the whole reason we live our lives in networks. If I was always violent to you or gave you germs, you would cut the ties to me and the network would disintegrate. In a deep and fundamental way, networks are connected to goodness, and goodness is required for networks to emerge and spread.

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.

We have to move from the unbridled pursuit of self-gain at the expense of others to recovering appreciation for what we gain by caring and sharing with one another.

My wife and I don't compete. We know each other's preferences, and we work to provide those for each other. One will take over when the other is faced with something he or she dislikes. That's what friends do.

If we do not want to be pained by anybody we must not pain anybody; and how can man consider himself humane if he wants to live at the cost of others.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

You give up your narcissism, your egotism. That's how you achieve chemistry.

We are all born with an innate understanding of interpersonal equity - the idea that if you lend me your rake today, I'll respond in kind when you come to borrow my shovel tomorrow. Or nearly all of us are born with that. Psychopaths aren't.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.

I think that was the case here. We just wanted it to be good for everybody.

I've always thought with relationships, that it's more about what you bring to the table than what you're going to get from it. It's very nice if you sit down and the cake appears. But if you go to the table expecting cake, then it's not so good.

Reciprocity helps us balance the need for self-determination and creative individuality with mutual hope and, therefore, what might be described as 'solidarity.'

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

Let everyone regulate his conduct... by the golden rule of doing to others as in similar circumstances we would have them do to us, and the path of duty will be clear before him.

The condition of our survival in any but the meagerest existence is our willingness to accommodate ourselves to the conflicting interests of others, to learn to live in a social world.

No one has to agree with everything that someone else says. But in state-to-state relations, we have to understand that we can help each other much more doing it that way. We have to be more generous.

You cannot just exercise your rights and get away without performing your responsibilities. Understand that it should not be about 'me' but rather 'us.'

Relationships have to have a give and take if they're going to work in the long term.

Trust implies that both parties participate in the relationship with both 'gives' and 'gets.'