…inequality itself is not morally objectionable; what is objectionable is poverty. If a person lives a long, healthy, pleasurable, and stimulating life, then how much money the Joneses earn, how big their house is, and how many cars they drive are morally irrelevant.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

…two kinds of complexity: Essential complexity is the kind that is inherent in the problem domain. Incidental complexity is the kind that is introduced solely by the solution.

— Jamie Allen, Reactive Design Patterns

…it places the very angels of Heaven and devils of Hell on an equal footing; confronted by angels pleading for brotherly love and devils bent on human pain and misery, the pure moral relativist would have to juggle the benefits of brotherly love with those of demonic torment. (After all, millions of sadistic, bloodthirsty demons are entitled to their viewpoint as well!)

— Christopher Michael Langan, The Art of Knowing

…the problem is the one-eyed following the blind: these self-described members of the “intelligentsia” can’t find a coconut on Coconut Island, meaning they aren’t intelligent enough to define intelligence, hence fall into circularities—their main skill is a capacity to pass exams written by people like them, or to write papers read by people like them.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game

The arts offer bridges to seeing human diversity as joyful, funny, tragic, delightful, not as a horrible fate to be shunned

— Martha Nussbaum, The Monarchy of Fear