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Many Artists And Scholars Have Pointed Out That Ultimately Art Depends On Human Nature.
-Steven Pinker
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Many Artists And Scholars

Steven Pinker
...
Many Artists And Scholars Have Pointed Out That Ultimately Art Depends On Human Nature.

Understanding the Quote: "many artists and scholars have pointed out that ultimately art depends on..."

This quote by Steven Pinker reflects deeply on the theme of art. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Art, Human Nature, Scholar, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Steven Pinker interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is celebrated for insightful thoughts on art and human nature. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Art
Human Nature
Scholar
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Evolution
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Data
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Illusion
Skepticism
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College
Intuition
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Thinker
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Awards
Rocks
I Think That Metaphor Really Is A Key To Explaining Thought And Language. The Human Mind Comes Equipped With An Ability To Penetrate The Cladding Of Sensory Appearance And Discern The Abstract Construction Underneath - Not Always On Demand, And Not Infallibly, But Often Enough And Insightfully Enough To Shape The Human Condition. Our Powers Of Analogy Allow Us To Apply Ancient Neural Structures To Newfound Subject Matter, To Discover Hidden Laws And Systems In Nature, And Not Least, To Amplify The Expressive Power Of Language Itself.
Thinking
Law
Keys
A Decent Government With An Effective, But Not Gratuitously Violent, Police Force And A Fair Court System Are Essential. This Deters And Incapacitates Psychopaths, Bullies And Hotheads - And If It Earns The Confidence Of The People, They Don't Have To Become Violent In Self-defence.
Government
Self
People
My Politics Were Pretty Anarchistic Until 1969 When The Montreal Police Went On Strike. Within Hours, Mayhem And Rioting Broke Out And The Mounties Had To Be Called In To Restore Order. It Instilled In Me That One's Convictions Can Be Subjected To Empirical Test.
Order
Police
Tests
There Is No Society Ever Discovered In The Remotest Corner Of The World That Has Not Had Something That We Would Consider The Arts. Visual Arts - Decoration Of Surfaces And Bodies - Appears To Be A Human Universal.
Art
World
Body
After Their Return From Babylon, The Practice Of Human Sacrifice Died Out Among The Jews, But Survived As An Ideal In One Of Its Break-away Sects, Which Believed That God Accepted The Torture-sacrifice Of An Innocent Man In Exchange For Not Visiting A Worse Fate On The Rest Of Humanity. The Sect Is Called Christianity.
Fate
Sacrifice
Men
Paris Hilton, It Turns Out, Is Related To Fellow Celebrity Jailbirds Zsa Zsa Gabor And G. Gordon Liddy.
Paris
Turns
Related
What Is True For The Emotions May Also Be True For The Intellect. Some Of Our Perplexities May Come From A Mismatch Between The Purposes For Which Our Cognitive Faculties Evolved And The Purposes To Which We Put Them Today.
Purpose
May
Today
Plants Can't Very Well Defend Themselves By Their Behavior, So They Resort To Chemical Warfare, And Plants Are Saturated With Toxins And Irritants To Deter Creatures Like Us Who Want To Eat Them.
Toxins
Warfare
Want
Thinking Is A Physical Process, The Human Brain Is Not Exempt From Evolution
Thinking
Brain
Evolution
People Consider The Harms They Inflict To Be Justified And Forgettable, And The Harms They Suffer To Be Unprovoked And Grievous.
People
Suffering
Religion
Aggression, Like Every Other Part Of Human Behavior We Take For Granted, Is A Challenging Engineering Problem!
Engineering
Challenges
Problem
M.i.t. Has A Reputation For Turning Out Dilberts. They May Be Brilliant In What They Do, But No One Can Understand What They Say.
May
Brilliant
Reputation
The Typical Imperative From Biology Is Not "thou Shalt... ," But "if ... Then ... Else.
Typical
Biology
If Then
No Matter How Inured You Get To Atrocities, You're Still Always Stunned And Shocked By How Cruel And Wasteful Homo Sapiens Can Be.
Atrocities
Matter
Stills
One Of My Favourite Kinds Of Movie Is The American Picaresque, In Which The Characters Make Their Way Across The Country, Learning About Life Against The Gorgeous Backdrops Of That Vast Land.
Country
Character
Land
People Know There Is A Difference Between What You Do And What You Accept. There Is A Difference Between Me Knowing That People Swear, Me Hearing People Swear And Me Swearing, And Everyone Accepting That This Is Something You Can Do As Much As You Like.
Differences
Knowing
People
I Never Outgrew My Conversion To Atheism At 13, But At Various Times Was A Serious Cultural Jew.
Atheism
Serious
Jew
Space And Force Pervade Language. Many Cognitive Scientists (including Me) Have Concluded From Their Research On Language That A Handful Of Concepts About Places, Paths, Motions, Agency, And Causation Underlie The Literal Or Figurative Meanings Of Tens Of Thousands Of Words And Constructions, Not Only In English But In Every Other Language That Has Been Studied.
Agency
Space
Research
No One Knows What The Nongenetic Causes Of Individuality Are. Perhaps People Are Shaped By Modifications Of Genes That Take Place After Conception, Or By Haphazard Fluctuations In The Chemical Soup In The Womb Or The Wiring Up Of The Brain Or The Expression Of The Genes Themselves.
Expression
People
Individuality
Consciousness Turns Out To Consist Of A Maelstrom Of Events Distributed Across The Brain. These Events Compete For Attention, And As One Process Outshouts The Others, The Brain Rationalizes The Outcome After The Fact And Concocts The Impression That A Single Self Was In Charge All Along.
Self
Brain
Events
If Crime Is Going Down, You Shouldn't Be Increasing Resources For Crime Prevention. Or You Should Be Taking Note Of What Has Worked And Concentrate The Crime-prevention Methods On Policies That Have A Track Record Of Success.
Track
Records
Prevention
Humans Are So Innately Hardwired For Language That They Can No More Suppress Their Ability To Learn And Use Language Than They Can Suppress The Instinct To Pull A Hand Back From A Hot Surface.
Hands
Hot
Use
Of Course Genes Can’t Pull The Levers Of Our Behavior Directly. But They Affect The Wiring And Workings Of The Brain, And The Brain Is The Seat Of Our Drives, Temperaments And Patterns Of Thought. Each Of Us Is Dealt A Unique Hand Of Tastes And Aptitudes, Like Curiosity, Ambition, Empathy, A Thirst For Novelty Or For Security, A Comfort Level With The Social Or The Mechanical Or The Abstract. Some Opportunities We Come Across Click With Our Constitutions And Set Us Along A Path In Life.
Ambition
Unique
Opportunity
Working Out What It Would Take To Program Goodness Into A Robot Shows Not Only How Much Machinery It Takes To Be Good But How Slippery The Concept Of Goodness Is To Start With.
Work Out
Robots
Goodness
Many Artists And Scholars Have Pointed Out That Ultimately Art Depends On Human Nature.
Art
Human Nature
Scholar
Why Do People Believe That There Are Dangerous Implications Of The Idea That The Mind Is A Product Of The Brain, That The Brain Is Organized In Part By The Genome, And That The Genome Was Shaped By Natural Selection?
Believe
Ideas
People
An Ideology Can Provide A Satisfying Narrative That Explains Chaotic Events And Collective Misfortunes In A Way That Flatters The Virtue And Competence Of Believers, While Being Vague Or Conspiratorial Enough To Withstand Skeptical Scrutiny.
Events
Narrative
Way
There's Guilt About Our Treatment Of Native Peoples In Modern Intellectual Life, And An Unwillingness To Acknowledge There Could Be Anything Good About Western Culture.
Intellectual
Guilt
Western Culture
Photography Is A Demanding Action Sport. The Light Can Change So Quickly. I Often Find Myself Sprinting So That I Can Catch The Perfect Light Falling On A Photogenic Subject.
Sports
Photography
Fall
As Long As Your Ideology Identifies The Main Source Of The World's Ills As A Definable Group, It Opens The World Up To Genocide.
Long
Groups
World
Morality, Then, Is Not A Set Of Arbitrary Regulations Dictated By A Vengeful Deity And Written Down In A Book; Nor Is It The Custom Of A Particular Culture Or Tribe. It Is A Consequence Of The Interchangeability Of Perspectives And The Opportunity The World Provides For Positive-sum Games.
Book
Opportunity
Games
A...reason We Are So-so Scientists Is That Our Brains Were Shaped For Fitness, Not For Truth. Sometimes Truth Is Adaptive, But Sometimes It Is Not.
Brain
Sometimes
Truth Is
Feminism As A Movement For Political And Social Equity Is Important, But Feminism As An Academic Clique Committed To Eccentric Doctrines About Human Nature Is Not. Eliminating Discrimination Against Women Is Important, But Believing That Women And Men Are Born With Indistinguishable Minds Is Not. Freedom Of Choice Is Important, But Ensuring That Women Make Up Exactly 50 Percent Of All Professions Is Not. And Eliminating Sexual Assaults Is Important, But Advancing The Theory That Rapists Are Doing Their Part In A Vast Male Conspiracy Is Not.
Believe
Men
Choices
The Theory That Religion Is A Force For Peace, Often Heard Among The Religious Right And Its Allies Today, Does Not Fit The Facts Of History.
Religious
Allies
Doe
Morality Comes From A Commitment To Treat Other As We Wish To Be Treated, Which Follows From The Realization That None Of Us Is The Sole Occupant Of The Universe.
Commitment
Wish
Realization
Being Smarter Gives You A Tailwind Throughout Life. People Who Are More Intelligent Earn More, Live Longer, Get Divorced Less, Are Less Likely To Get Addicted To Alcohol And Tobacco, And Their Children Live Longer.
Children
Intelligent
People
The Rights Revolutions Too Have Given Us Ideals That Educated People Today Take For Granted But That Are Virtually Unprecedented In Human History, Such As That People Of All Races And Creeds Have Equal Rights, That Women Should Be Free From All Forms Of Coercion, That Children Should Never, Ever Be Spanked, That Students Should Be Protected From Bullying, And That There’s Nothing Wrong With Being Gay. I Don’t Find It At All Implausible That These Are Gifts, In Part, Of A Refined And Widening Application Of Reason.
Bullying
Children
Gay
The Last 100 Years Of Research Into The Human Brain...sees The Brain As An Organ That Works By Physical Principles Just Like The Other Organs In The Body...our Emotions And Higher Callings, Such As Religion, As Well As Our Grubby Low-level Physical Systems Like Stereo Vision And Motor Control, Are Products Of A Machine.
Fear
Years
Brain
Evolutionary Psychologists Seem To Want To Unmask Our Noblest Motives As Ultimately Self-interested - To Show That Our Love For Children, Compassion For The Unfortunate And Sense Of Justice Are Just Tactics In A Darwinian Struggle To Perpetuate Our Genes.
Children
Struggle
Compassion
Human Nature Is Complex. Even If We Do Have Inclinations Toward Violence, We Also Have Inclination To Empathy, To Cooperation, To Self-control.
Self
Empathy
Violence
Personality And Socialization Aren't The Same Thing.
Personality
Socialization
By Denying People's Sense Of Visual Beauty In Painting And Sculpture , Melody In Music , Meter And Rhyme In Poetry , Plot And Narrative And Character In Fiction , The Elite Arts Wrote Off The Vast Majority Of Their Audience . They Purposely Excluded People Who Approach Art In Part For Pleasure And Edification In Favour Of Social One-upmanship And An Ever-narrowing, In-crowd Elite.
Art
Character
People
If People Are Innately Saddled With Certain Sins And Flaws, Like Selfishness, Prejudice, Sort-sightedness, And Self-deception, Then Political Reform Would Seem To Be A Waste Of Time.
Self
People
Political
Genes Are A Play Within A Play, Not The Interior Monologue Of The Players.
Player
Genes
Monologues
A Word Is An Arbitrary Label - That's The Foundation Of Linguistics. But Many People Think Otherwise. They Believe In Word Magic: That Uttering A Spell, Incantation, Curse, Or Prayer Can Change The World. Don't Snicker: Would You Ever Say, 'nothing Has Gone Wrong Yet' Without Looking For Wood To Knock?
Prayer
Believe
Thinking
The Great Appeal Of The Doctrine That The Mind Is A Blank Slate Is The Simple Mathematical Fact That Zero Equals Zero.
Zero
Simple
Mind
Gossip Is Certainly One Of The Things That Language Is Useful For, Because It's Always Handy To Know Who Needs A Favor, Who Can Offer A Favor, Who's Available, Who's Under The Protection Of A Jealous Spouse. And Being The First To Get A Piece Of Gossip Is Like Engaging In Insider Trading: You Can Capitalize On An Opportunity Before Anyone Else Can.
Jealous
Opportunity
Gossip
The Brain Is Not A Bag Of Traits. It's Startlingly Complex. There Are Few Or No Single Genes With A Consistent Effect On The Mind.
Brain
Mind
Bags
Knowing There Is A World That Will Outlive You, There Are People Whose Well-being Depends On How You Live Your Life, Affects The Way You Live Your Life, Whether Or Not You Directly Experience Those Effects. You Want To Be The Kind Of Person Who Has The Larger View, Who Takes Other People's Interests Into Account, Who's Dedicated To The Principles That You Can Justify, Like Justice, Knowledge, Truth, Beauty And Morality.
Atheist
Knowing
Views
Theories Of Art Carry The Seeds Of Their Own Destruction.
Art
Destruction
Theory
Of Course The Theory Of Evolution Would Be Vacuous If It Offered A Glib Explanation For Every Inexplicable Act.
Theory Of Evolution
Atheism
Would Be
Terrorist Bombings, Like Rampage Shootings, Are Events That Maximize The Amount Of Publicity Per Amount Of Damage. That's Why People Do Them, Because They Know They Will Set Off A Media Frenzy.
Media
People
Events
Violent Movements Attract Thugs And Firebrands Who Enjoy The Mayhem. Violent Tactics Provide A Pretext For Retaliation By The Enemy And Alienate Third Parties Who Might Otherwise Support The Movement.
Party
Thug
Support
Racism, Because It Favors Color Over Talent, Is Bad For Business.
Color
Racism
Favors
Economic Libertarians And Christian Evangelicals, United By Their Common Enemy, Are Strange Bedfellows In Today's Republican Party, Just As The Two Georges - The Archconservative Wallace And The Uberliberal Mcgovern - Found Themselves In The Same Democratic Party In 1972.
Christian
Party
Two
As Individual People, Embedded In Our Daily Lives, Of Course We're Interested In What Makes One Person Different From Another. We've Got To Hire One Person And Not Another, Marry One Person And Not Another.
People
Different
Daily Life
The Mind Is A Neural Computer
Mind
Computer
In Any Dispute, Each Side Thinks It's In The Right And The Other Side Is Demons.
Thinking
Sides
Demon
Words Let Us Say The Things We Want To Say And Also Things We Would Be Better Off Not Having Said. They Let Us Know The Things We Need To Know, And Also Things We Wish We Didn't.
Wish
Would Be
Needs
Tom Hanks, Who Starred In 'the Da Vinci Code,' Turns Out To Be Related To A Number Of The Historic Characters That Feature In 'the Da Vinci Code,' Including William The Conqueror And Shakespeare.
Character
Numbers
Historic
Semantics Is About The Relation Of Words To Thoughts, But It Also About The Relation Of Words To Other Human Concerns. Semantics Is About The Relation Of Words To Reality - The Way That Speakers Commit Themselves To A Shared Understanding Of The Truth, And The Way Their Thoughts Are Anchored To Things And Situations In The World.
Reality
Understanding
World
Fiction Is Empathy Technology.
Technology
Empathy
Fiction
The Problem With The Emotions Is Not That They Are Untamed Forces Or Vestiges Of Our Animal Past; It Is That They Were Designed To Propagate Copies Of The Genes That Built Them Rather Than To Promote Happiness, Wisdom, Or Moral Values.
Animal
Past
Untamed
Writers Acquire Their Technique By Spotting, Savoring, And Reverse-engineering Examples Of Good Prose.
Engineering
Technique
Example
Democracy Is An Imperfect Way Of Steering Between The Violence Of Anarchy And The Violence Of Tyranny, With The Least Violence You Can Get Away With.
Democracy
Way
Anarchy
I Get Drawn In When I Feel There Is Something Deep And Mysterious Going On Beneath The Surface Of Something.
Mysterious
Beneath The Surface
Surface
Without Goals The Very Concept Of Intelligence Is Meaningless
Goal
Concepts
Meaningless
The World Has Far Too Much Morality.
World
Too Much
Morality
One Of The Things That People Complain About Is Loneliness, Disconnectedness. If You Live In A Society Where Your Life Is Rarely Threatened And Most Of Your Relationships Are More On An Economic Exchange Basis, Then This Could Leave People Feeling Less Connected.
Loneliness
People
Feelings
I Think The Reason That Swearing Is Both So Offensive And So Attractive Is That It Is A Way To Push People's Emotional Buttons, And Especially Their Negative Emotional Buttons. Because Words Soak Up Emotional Connotations And Are Processed Involuntarily By The Listener, You Can't Will Yourself Not To Treat The Word In Terms Of What It Means.
Mean
Thinking
Emotional
The Linguistic Clumsiness Of Tourists And Students Might Be The Price We Pay For The Linguistic Genius We Displayed As Babies, Just As The Decrepitude Of Age In The Price We Pay For The Vigor Of Youth.
Baby
Age
Tourists
One Of The Perks Of Being A Psychologist Is Access To Tools That Allow You To Carry Out The Injunction To Know Thyself.
Tools
Psychologist
Know Thyself
As Every Student In Philosophy 101 Learns, Nothing Can Force Me To Believe That Anyone Except Me Is Conscious. This Power To Deny That Other People Have Feelings Is Not Just An Academic Exercise But An All-too-common Vice, As We See In The Long History Of Human Cruelty.
Philosophy
Believe
Exercise
Why Is It Surprising That Scientists Might Have Long Hair And Wear Cowboy Boots? In Fields Like Neuroscience, Where The Events You Are Recording Are So Minute, I Suspect Scientists Cultivate A Boring, Reliable Image. A Scientist With A Reputation For Flamboyance Might Be Suspect.
Cowboy
Hair
Long
Students Do Everything On Laptops These Days, So I Definitely Think Electronic Books Are A Trend That's Going To Expand.
Book
Thinking
Trends
Some People Believe That The Nuclear Bomb Should Be Awarded The Nobel Peace Prize, Since It Scared The Major Powers Away From War By Equating It With Doomsday.
War
Believe
People
However Much We Might Deplore The Profit Motive, Or Consumerist Values, If Everyone Just Wants I-pods We Would Probably Be Better Off Than If They Wanted Class Revolution.
Class
Want
Might
The Elegant Study... Is Consistent With The Themes Of Modern Cognitive Neuroscience . Every Aspect Of Thought And Emotion Is Rooted In Brain Structure And Function, Including Many Psychological Disorders And, Presumably, Genius. The Study Confirms That The Brain Is A Modular System Comprising Multiple Intelligences, Mostly Nonverbal.
Psychological Disorders
Brain
Genius
Something About The Topic Of Consciousness Makes People, Like The White Queen In Through The Looking Glass, Believe Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
Queens
Believe
Impossible Things
Evolutionary Psychology Is One Of Four Sciences That Are Bringing Human Nature Back Into The Picture.
Psychology
Four
Human Nature
We Will Never Have A Perfect World, But It's Not Romantic Or Naive To Work Toward A Better One.
Perfect
World
A Perfect World
As Many Political Writers Have Pointed Out, Commitment To Political Equality Is Not An Empirical Claim That People Are Clones.
Commitment
Equality
People
Much Of What Is Today Called "social Criticism" Consists Of Members Of The Upper Classes Denouncing The Tastes Of The Lower Classes (bawdy Entertainment, Fast Food, Plentiful Consumer Goods) While Considering Themselves Egalitarians.
Class
Criticism
Entertainment
Language Pedants Hew To An Oral Tradition Of Shibboleths That Have No Basis In Logic Or Style, That Have Been Defied By Great Writers For Centuries, And That Have Been Disavowed By Every Thoughtful Usage Manual.
Thoughtful
Style
Oral Tradition
The Reason I'm Not A Neurobiologist But A Cognitive Psychologist Is That I Think Looking At Brain Tissue Is Often The Wrong Level Of Analysis. You Have To Look At A Higher Level Of Organization.
Thinking
Organization
Brain
According To A Recent Study Of The Brains Of Identical And Fraternal Twins, Differences In The Amount Of Gray Matter In The Frontal Lobes Are Not Only Genetically Influenced But Are Significantly Correlated With Differences In Intelligence.
Gray Matter
Differences
Brain
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