Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it's narrow, it's innumerate, it's racist, it's very biased.

Families survive the terrible twos because toddlers aren't strong enough to kill with their hands and aren't capable of using lethal weapons.

Philosophers have often looked for the defining feature of humans — language, rationality, culture, and so on. I'd stick with this: Man is the only animal that likes Tabasco sauce.

Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the same value as the lives of those we love.

A religion such as Judaism or Catholicism might survive even if it comes to reject a literal account of God creating man and animals. But it cannot survive the rejection of an immaterial soul.

I argue that we should be kind, we should be compassionate, and we should definitely be reasonable and rational, but that empathy leads us astray.

The fact that something can be used for good isn't necessarily a knockdown argument for it.

The effects of Twitter and Facebook and all those things on people's psychologies is a really interesting question to which nobody knows the answer.

I love teaching. I wouldn't take a job that didn't include it.

What I mean by "empathy" is putting yourself in other people's shoes, feeling what they feel.

I think empathy is really important for pleasure.

How this life speeds right by, the odometer forgetting how fast it sped. Grinding the foot and pressing the metal, not counting road side markers ahead

If you're going to plan a wedding, then a certain amount of suffering is not a choice.

What is the duty of a Latter-day Saint? To do all the good he can upon the earth.

So you really cant think of anyone else who might want to kill you?"asked Jace. "Unlike in your case there arent actually all that many people who dislike me."said Simon.

Don't teach too many postures; just the main ones, and hold them for a long time.

When I look at where I’ve been, I see that what I am becoming is a whole lot further down the road from where I was.

He didn't look back. He never did

Just remember that the darkest night did not turn out all the stars.

Rights are either God-given or evolve out of the democratic process. Most rights are based on the ability of people to agree on a social contract, the ability to make and keep agreements.

Stories are more than compelling facts. People remember stories more than they remember statistics.