The evidence is clear and overwhelming that both the detection of deception and often its propagation have been major forces favoring the evolution of intelligence.

— Robert Trivers, The Folly of Fools

…nothing is more dangerous than an idea, especially if you feel it’s the only idea you have.

— Gerald M. Weinberg, Fiona Charles, Keats Kirsch, Dani Weinberg, and Earl Everett, Weinberg on Writing

In mathematics, the art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it.

— Haim Shapira, Eight Lessons on Infinity

Depression is fundamentally a pathological sense of loss of control (explaining the classic description of depression as “learned helplessness”).

— Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave

hope is nothing but an inconstant joy which has arisen from the image of a future…whose outcome we doubt

— Baruch Spinoza, Spinoza: Complete Works