Robert Wright Quotes

#1. Next time you see a yardful of sprouting dandelions, note that they look remarkably like things we call "flowers." And later, when the flowers turn into fluff balls, look closely at one of those fluff balls and ask yourself whether it's really so unattractive.

Robert Wright

#2. There is in the world today a great and mysterious force that shapes the fortunes of millions of people. It is called the stock market.

Robert Wright

#3. The idea is that human culture as broadly defined
art, politics, technology, religion, and so on
evolves in much the way biological species evolve: new cultural traits arise and may flourish or perish, and as a result whole institutions can belief systems form and change.

Robert Wright

#4. A female in a high-MPI species may seek signs of generosity, trustworthiness, and, especially, an enduring commitment to her in particular.

Robert Wright

#5. Next time you see an unblemished expanse of grass, think about the chemicals that probably got dumped in your vicinity to create it. Are you grateful for that?

Robert Wright

#6. Religion is a feature of cultural evolution that, among other things, addresses anxieties created by cultural evolution; it helps keep social change safe from itself.

Robert Wright

#7. We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones.

Robert Wright

#8. Like a lawyer, the human brain wants victory, not truth; and, like a lawyer, it is sometimes more admirable for skill than virtue.

Robert Wright

#9. For a species low in male parental investment, the basic dynamic of courtship, as we've seen, is pretty simple: the male really wants sex; the female isn't so sure.7

Robert Wright

#10. Fuel efficiency is reducing the fund's income per mile driven and the average number of miles driven per person has declined.

Robert Wright

#11. if they believe that their fortunes are inversely correlated with the foreigners' fortunes, that the foreigners have to lose for them to win - then their theology will probably be less inclusive. Let's

Robert Wright

#12. Being a person's true friend means endorsing the untruths he holds dearest.

Robert Wright

#13. One reasonable reaction to evolutionary psychology is a self-consciousness so acute, and a cynicism so deep, that ironic detachment from the whole human enterprise may provide the only relief.

Robert Wright

#14. Understanding the often unconscious nature of genetic control is the first step toward understanding that - in many realms, not just sex - we're all puppets, and our best hope for even partial liberation is to try to decipher the logic of the puppeteer.

Robert Wright

#15. Human nature consists of knobs and of mechanisms for tuning the knobs, and both are invisible in their own way.

Robert Wright

#16. Giving men marriage tips is a little like offering Vikings a free booklet titled How Not to Pillage.

Robert Wright

#17. Once you the forces that govern behavior,it's harder to blame the behaver

Robert Wright

#18. The sages may have been self-serving, like the rest of us, but that doesn't mean they weren't sages.

Robert Wright

#19. Your brain may give birth to any technology, but other brains will decide whether the technology thrives. The number of possible technologies is infinite, and only a few pass this test of affinity with human nature.

Robert Wright

#20. Humans have various ways of coping with extended stress, and one is the anticipation of a better time. Here, as with retribution, there is often a kind of symmetry: the more intense the stress and the more hopeless the situation, the more fabulous the coming times that are anticipated.

Robert Wright

#21. Is there something? Is there anything? Is there any evidence of something? Any signs that there's more to life that the sum of its subatomic particles - some larger purpose, some deeper meaning, maybe even something that would qualify as "divine" in some sense of the word?

Robert Wright

#22. Arious people had long had the feeling that gain through pain was nature's way

Robert Wright

#23. In the great non zero sum games of history, if you're part of the problem, then you'll likely be a victim of the solution.

Robert Wright

#24. People may chuckle appreciatively at a male turkey that tries to mate with a poor rendition of a female's [suspended] head, but if you then point out that many a human male regularly gets aroused after looking at two-dimensional representations of a nude woman, they don't see the connection.

Robert Wright

#25. Jesus is not from Georgia. Jesus does not speak English. And Jesus is not a member of the NRA.

Robert Wright

#26. Human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their ignorance of the misuse.

Robert Wright

#27. Sensual pleasures are the whip natural selection uses to control us, to keep us in the thrall of its warped values system.

Robert Wright

#28. Nature has gone to great lengths to hide our subconscious from ourselves. Why?

Robert Wright

#29. God knows greed won't vanish. Neither will hatred or chauvanism. Human nature is a stubborn thing. But it isn't beyond control. Even if our core impulses can;t be banished, they can be tempered and redirected.

Robert Wright