Quotes by Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Explore a curated collection of 47 quotes by Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Discover timeless wisdom, insightful thoughts, and memorable words that have inspired readers around the world. Browse through the gallery below and click on any quote to read more.

A sense of solidarity among fifteen-to-thirty-year-olds would be a menace to civilized society even in the best of times — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
A society is an organic system that develops spontaneously, governed by myriad interactions and adjustments that no huma — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
The one great universal in the study of violence is that most of it is committed by fifteen-to-thirty-year-old men. — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
More to the point, what was the lesson that the first Christians drew from crucifixion? Today such a barbarity might gal — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Perhaps the most extraordinary popular delusion about violence of the past quarter-century is that it is caused by low s — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
The essence of a culture of honor is that it does not sanction predatory or instrumental violence, but only retaliation — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
The universality of reason is a momentous realization, because it defines a place for morality. If I appeal to you do do — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Religious people today, compartmentalize their attitude to the Bible. They pay it lip service as a symbol of morality wh — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Institutionalized torture in Christendom was not just an unthinking habit; it had a moral rationale. If you really belie — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
The Bible depicts a world that, seen through modern eyes, is staggering in its savagery. People enslave, rape, and murde — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
States are far less violent than traditional bands and tribes. Modern Western countries, even in their most war-torn cen — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
As an Auyana man living in New Guinea under the Pax Australiana put it, “Life was better since the government came” beca — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Today we recognize that the emotion of disgust evolved as an unconscious defense against biological contamination. — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Reason is up to these demands because it is an open-ended combinatorial system, an engine for generating an unlimited nu — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Organisms are selected to deploy violence only in circumstances where the expected benefits outweigh the expected costs. — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
we enjoy the peace we find today because people in past generations were appalled by the violence in their time and work — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
The 21st century has certainly seen the rape of women in wartime, but it has long been treated as an atrocious war crime — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
But in Hebrew scripture David is not just the “sweet singer of Israel,” the chiseled poet who plays a harp and composes — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
People today think of the world as a uniquely dangerous place. It’s hard to follow the news without a mounting dread of — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
One-on-one revenge was common in foraging societies, and kin-against-kin blood feuds were common in tribal societies tha — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined