A Quote by Steven Pinker

The supposedly immaterial soul, we now know, can be bisected with a knife, altered by chemicals, started or stopped by electricity, and extinguished by a sharp blow or by insufficient oxygen.

Steven Pinker

Quote Topics

Altered Blow Chemicals Electricity Immaterial Insufficient Knife Know Now Oxygen Sharp Soul Started Stopped Supposedly

Quote Author

Steven Pinker
Canadian - Scientist
Born: September 18, 1954

A blow to the head will confuse a man's thinking, a blow to the foot has no such effect, this cannot be the result of an immaterial soul.

Heraclitus

Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.

Dave Barry

"God is a spirit." But that does not make him an immaterial being —a being that has no properties in common with matter. The expression "an immaterial being," is a contradiction in terms. Immateriality is only another name for nothing. It is the negative of all existence. A "spirit" is as much matter as oxygen or hydrogen.

Orson Pratt

To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But heresy it certainly is.

Thomas Jefferson

Who hasn't sharpened the edge of his soul? When, just as our eyes are opened, we see hate, and just after learning to walk, we are tripped, and just for wanting to love, we are hated, and for no more than touching, we are hurt, which of us hasn't started to arm himself, to make himself sharp, somehow, like a knife, to pay back the hurt?

Pablo Neruda

We stopped cleaning our houses with lemon water and vinegar like our mothers did, and we clean with chemicals. We're breathing chemicals, and then everyone wonders why cancer is the biggest killer.

Suzanne Somers

Give me a good sharp knife and a good sharp cheese and I’m a happy man.

George R. R. Martin

No one is ever better off with dictators but there comes a time you know, when you're on an airplane, they always say, "in case of an emergency oxygen masks will drop down. Put yours on first and then administer help to your neighbor." We need oxygen right now.

Benjamin Carson

We can know nothing till after this grave debate. The soul must withdraw, for this is not its hour. Now the knife must divide the flesh, and lay the ravage bare, and do its work completely.

Georges Duhamel

I think that all the years of exposure to amps and electricity has altered my body chemistry.

Iggy Pop

Performance is there, and if you are not there in that moment it happened, it just stays in the memory. It's so immaterial and something this immaterial is very difficult to collect. Its difficult to buy, its how we can buy immaterial art.

Marina Abramovic

Chemicals(:)...We not only don't know what's going on out there is dangerous ~ we don't even know what is going on out there. It's what we don't know that can really hurt us - kill us. ...It is time we started putting chemicals to the test - not people. It is time we gave people of this country some reason to believe that every time they take a breath, or eat, or drink, or touch, they are not taking their life into their hands. It is time that, down here on earth, we took a couple of small sensible steps on behalf of human health and life.

Russell E. Train

And who are you, the proud Lord said that I must bow so low? Only a cat of a different coat, that's all the truth I know. In a coat of gold or a coat of red, a lion still has claws. And, mine are as long and sharp, my Lord as long and sharp as yours. And so he spoke, and so he spoke, that Lord of Castamere, but now the rains weep o'er his hall, with no one there to hear. Yes, now the rains weep o'er his hall, and not a soul to hear.

George R. R. Martin

I reveled in the most basic rules and techniques that are the foundation of professional cooking. For example, it is essential to use a sharp knife: the sharper the knife, the more fluid and precise your work and the less likely you are to get hurt. Dull knives are a danger - they slip far more often.

Gail Simmons

It is this kindness of his that unsettles me most. I can dodge a blow or block a knife. I am impervious to poison and know a dozen ways to escape a chokehold or garrote wire. But kindness? I do not know how to defend against that.