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.

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

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.

Trade is 10 times as old as farming.

Do not judge my success by the destination I reached but the distance I traveled.

Never give up on your dreams! When you’re good at something, and there’s love in what you do, passion will always bring success.

Betrayal isn't ridiculous. It's the reason empires fall.

I believe I've come to understand something. Love isn't always big and dramatic. It's big, it's deep, but it's also quiet and calm.

When did it - When did it become okay for someone to hit home runs and forget how to play the rest of the game?

Doing something purely for one's own enjoyment is fine, but, I must admit, finding that others enjoy it as well has a certain power over the corners of my mouth.

Really good original ideas are very hard to come up with. Good ideas - easy. Really good, original ideas - it can take months.

In reply to 'how do I flirt with people?': Just be yourself and not want anything out of anybody. Desire is the killer of all smoothness.

The San Francisco Tape Music Centre was a kind of collective non-profit that my friends and I got started so that we could pool our equipment and make tape music.

In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.