Pinker: The Stuff of Thought

Summary: The Stuff of Thought by Pinker . (Stub — expand from highlights.)

Sources: quotes_batch_18.md

Source pages: Library Quotes Analysis: Batch 7 (Books 86-100 Selection), Quotes batch 18

Quote pages: Q33, Pinker – The Stuff of Thought

Last updated: 2026-05-07

Quotes

Concept

“Language is a window into human nature; the way we use verbs reveals our innate concepts of space, time, and causality.” (p. 3)

Behavior

“Politeness and innuendo are social behaviors used to communicate high-stakes messages while maintaining ‘plausible deniability’.” (p. 376)

Game Theory

“An indirect bribe is a strategic move that allows the sender and receiver to maintain a relationship of mutual respect.” (p. 402)

Cognition

“We think in metaphors; we conceptualize ‘time’ as ‘space’ and ‘arguments’ as ‘war’ because of our cognitive architecture.” (p. 235)

Memory

“The words that stay in the language are those that map most closely to our ancestral ways of perceiving the world.” (p. 124)