Steven Pinker Quotes

Any simple claim that you need religion to be good is flat wrong.

Sin in this country has been always said to be rather calculating than impulsive.

When, in the present world, men behave well, that is no doubt sometimes because they are creatures of habit as well as, sometimes, because they are reasonable.

It is better to will the good than to know the truth.

Rationality tied to moral decency is the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.

Over the last few years, I've been focusing on questions having to do with the self, and questions having to do with morality. I'm very interested in why we do good things, or bad things, and where moral judgments come from.

A man's acts are usually right, but his reasons seldom are.

I think in general the ends do not justify the means.

When your principles seem to be demanding suicide, clearly it's time to check your premises

After all, why be good? How many will actually believe it of us?

Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly.

Justice without wisdom is impossible.

Legality alone is no guide for a moral people. There are many things in this world that have been, or are, legal but clearly immoral. Slavery was legal. Did that make it moral? South Africa’s apartheid, Nazi persecution of Jews, and Stalinist and Maoist purges were all legal, but did that make them moral?

Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

Ethical inquiry has always been motivated by the aim of improving human conduct. It doesn't follow from that that the goal is to produce a complete rule book that would be applicable to all cases.

Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.

But, brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the CAUSE of badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don't go into what is the cause of GOODNESS, so why of the other shop?

Besides reasoning about matters of fact, men also make moral judgements.

If you ask anyone, what is morality based on? These are the two factors that always come out: One is reciprocity, … a sense of fairness, and the other one is empathy and compassion.

We can all be good when we have no temptation or provocation to the contrary.

I don't trust a man who talks about ethics when he is picking my pocket. But if he is acting in his own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.

Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience.

No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.

One of them is knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho. Take that one to bed with you tonight.

I'm very interested in why we do good things, or bad things, and where moral judgments come from.