"I believe the self is, at least in part, a cleverly disguised deception that allows the social world in and allows us to be “overtaken” by the social world without our even noticing."

"Materialism in our culture has been growing over time, and this aspiration toward financial success for many of us has come at the cost of our social connections."

"the self exists primarily as a conduit to let the social groups we are immersed in (that is, our family, our school, our country) supplement our natural impulses with socially derived impulses."

"evolution is moving us ever closer to interdependent social living, where we maximize what we can do together in groups."

"We believe these are our deeply personal private stock of beliefs, and that notion makes us work hard to defend them. It rarely dawns on us that others put them there. When we defend our beliefs, we are usually defending society’s beliefs."