“English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).”

“Doctors most commonly get mixed up between absence of evidence and evidence of abense”

“Further, in writing, I feel corrupt and unethical if I have to look up a subject in a library as part of the writing itself. This acts as a filter--it is the only filter. If the subject is not interesting enough for me to look it up independently, for my own curiosity or purposes, and I have not done so before, then I should not be writing about it at all, period. It does not mean that libraries (physical and virtual) are not acceptable; it means that they should not be the source of any idea.”

“The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free”

“The appearance of busyness reinforces the perception of causality, of the link between results, and one's role in them.”

“The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; some do both; and the wise does neither”

“It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.”