“Enlightenment ideals are timeless, but their realization at any moment is the strenuous achievement of nations.” — Steven Pinker · Enlightenment Now, 2018
“Progress consists of deploying knowledge to allow all of humankind to flourish in the same way that each of us seeks to flourish.” — Steven Pinker · Enlightenment Now, 2018
“Pessimism is so reflexively expected of an intellectual that the way to flaunt your sophistication is to wear a long face.” — Steven Pinker · Enlightenment Now, 2018
“Knowledge is growing exponentially; knowledge needed to fend off our problems is growing faster than the problems.” — Steven Pinker · Enlightenment Now, 2018
“The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.” — Steven Pinker · The Better Angels of Our Nature, 2011
“As the world has gotten more rational, it has gotten less cruel.” — Steven Pinker · The Better Angels of Our Nature, 2011