Many species reciprocate, but only humans gossip, and much of what we gossip about is the vale of other people as partners for reciprocal relationships.

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Morality binds people into groups. It gives us tribalism, it gives us genocide, war, and politics. But it also gives us heroism, altruism, and sainthood.

Reciprocity is a deep instinct; it is the basic currency of social life.

The most powerful force ever known on this planet is human cooperation - a force for construction and destruction.

Empathy is an antidote to righteousness, although it's very difficult to empathize across a moral divide

Sacredness binds people together, and then blinds them to the arbitrariness of the practice.

The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.

Human rationality depends critically on sophisticated emotionality. It is only because our emotional brain works so well that our reasoning can work at all.

Diversity is not a virtue. Diversity is a good only to the extent that it advances other virtues, justice or inclusiveness of others who have previously been excluded.

Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into teams … but thereby makes us go blind to objective reality.

Educators not only teach, but they also inspire students to learn, ignite the light of imaginations, shine the sense of perception, and define the path of life for future generations.

It's true Heaven forbids some pleasures but a compromise can usually be found.

I wrote about people who liked fake fireplaces in their parlor, who thought a brass horse with a clock embedded in its flank was wonderful.

In order to be successful, you have to make sure that being rejected doesn’t bother you at all.

Happiness is dog-shaped, I say.

I think Chelsea Handler is the funniest woman.

It's amazing how the things you remember forever are the things you'd rather forget and the things you desperately want to grasp onto seem to slip away like sand in the wind.

I consider the opportunity to bear witness to the eloquent beauty of Baikida's music a distinct honor. Baikida Carroll is polarized; poised; at a matchless point between lyricism and fire.

To distract from the president's disappointing record, Team Obama has decided to base their entire campaign on attacking the private sector and Mitt Romney's career as a successful businessman.

I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.