Simple determinism, whether of the genetic or environmental kind, is a depressing prospect for those with a fondness for free will.

Futurology always ends up telling you more about your own time than about the future.

Society works not because we have consciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions. It is literally in our nature.

The interaction of genetic and external influences makes my behaviour unpredictable, but not undetermined. In the gap between those words lies freedom.

It is not a zero sum game. The simple idea of the gains from trade lies at the heart of the modern and the ancient economy, not the power of capital. There is nothing else to it.

Intelligence will become more and more collective; innovation and order will become more and more bottom-up.

Prosperity has brought complications. Our lives are busier, faster, more stressful. They're nostalgic for a simpler, slower time.

A true scientist is bored by knowledge; it is the assault on ignorance that motivates him - the mysteries that previous discoveries have revealed.

The genome is a book that wrote itself, continually adding, deleting and amending over four billion years.

At some point, human intelligence became collective and cumulative in a way that happened to no other animal.

Our minds have been built by selfish genes, but they have been built to be social, trustworthy and cooperative.

In a constructive policy, there is ‘adjust everywhere’ and in a destructive policy, there is a policy of disadjustment.

They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.

Modern definitions of truth, such as those as pragmatism and instrumentalism, which are practical rather than contemplative, are inspired by industrialisation as opposed to aristocracy.

Success never needs an excuse.

Not to know what things in life require remedying is a crime... It leaves you at the mercy of events - it lets life manipulate you - instead of training you to manipulate life.

It may be concluded that a pure democracy . . . can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction.

All of life is a risk; in fact we're not going to get out alive. Casualness leads to casualties. Communication is the ability to affect other people with words.

A good hamburger mix: add equal parts black pepper, granulated garlic, grilled onion, onion powder and some chopped onion. And mix in a little barbecue sauce, which will add even more great flavor.

Don't ever promise more than you can deliver, but always deliver more than you promise.

We live to avoid death, we exist to avoid unexistence