In the various attempts to solve the problem of consistency there is one persistent source of difficulty. It lies in the fact that the axioms are interpreted by models composed of an infinite number of elements. This makes it impossible to encompass the models in a finite number of observations; hence the truth of the axioms themselves is subject to doubt.

— Ernest Nagel, James R. Newman and Douglas R. Hofstadter, Sapiens

The “goals” of natural selection transcend our bodies. So, strange as it might seem, selfish genes create altruistic animals, motivating kindness toward others

— Paul Bloom, Against Empathy

My idea of the modern Stoic sage is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile

The committee perceives that Department of Defense acquisition has lost that permeating sense of urgency, replaced with ever-increasing layers of “oversight” mechanisms to avoid mistakes.

— Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Designs of Design

“The relativists’ stance is extremely condescending: it treats a complex society as a monolith, obscures the conflicts within it, and takes its most obscurantist factions as spokespeople for the whole.”

— Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense