KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

Alison Gopnik Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by Alison Gopnik

Showing 51-60 of 72 Quotes by Alison Gopnik

Scientists and philosophers tend to treat knowledge, imagination and love as if they were all very separate parts of human nature. But when it comes to children, all three are deeply entwined. Children learn the truth by imagining all the ways the world could be, and testing those possibilities.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Children Could Deeply Human Human Nature Imagination Imagining Knowledge Learn Love Nature Parts Philosophers Possibilities Scientists Separate Tend Testing Those Three Treat Truth Very Ways Were World

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Something like reading depends a lot on just having people around you who talk to you and read you books, more than sitting down and, say, doing a reading drill when you're 3 or 4 years old.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Around Books Depends Doing Down Drill Having Just Like Lot More Old People Read Reading Say Sitting Something Talk Than Who Years You

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The science can tell you that the thousands of pseudo-scientific parenting books out there - not to mention the 'Baby Einstein' DVDs and the flash cards and the brain-boosting toys - won't do a thing to make your baby smarter. That's largely because babies are already as smart as they can be; smarter than we are in some ways.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Babies Baby Because Books Cards Einstein Flash Largely Make Mention Out Parenting Science Smart Smarter Some Tell Than Thing Thousands Toys Ways You Your Dvds

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When nobody read, dyslexia wasn't a problem. When most people had to hunt, a minor genetic variation in your ability to focus attention was hardly a problem, and may even have been an advantage. When most people have to make it through high school, the same variation can become a genuinely life-altering disease.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Ability Advantage Attention Become Been Disease Dyslexia Even Focus Genetic Genuinely Had Hardly High High School Hunt Make May Minor Most Nobody People Problem Read Same School Through Variation Your

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


If you wanted to design a robot that could learn as well as it possibly could, you might end up with something that looked a lot like a 3-year-old.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Could Design End Learn Like Looked Lot Might Possibly Robot Something Up Wanted Well You

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I wanted to answer big questions about humanity, about how it is that we understand about the world, how we can know as much as we do, why human nature is the way that it is. And it always seemed to me that you find answers to those questions by looking at children.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: About Always Answer Answers Big Big Questions Children Find How Human Human Nature Humanity Know Looking Me Much Nature Questions Seemed Those Understand Wanted Way Why World You

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Children have a very good idea of how to distinguish between fantasies and realities. It's just they are equally interested in exploring both.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Between Both Children Distinguish Equally Exploring Fantasies Good Good Idea How Idea Interested Just Realities Very

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


If parents are the fixed stars in the child's universe, the vaguely understood, distant but constant celestial spheres, siblings are the dazzling, sometimes scorching comets whizzing nearby.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Celestial Child Constant Dazzling Distant Fixed Nearby Parents Sibling Sometimes Spheres Stars Understood Universe Vaguely

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Siblings are the guarantors that the private childhood world - so unlike the adult world that scientists are only just beginning to understand it - is a fully shared and objective one.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: Adult Beginning Childhood Fully Just Objective Only Private Scientists Shared Sibling Understand Unlike World

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Samuel Johnson called it the vanity of human wishes, and Buddhists talk about the endless cycle of desire. Social psychologists say we get trapped on a hedonic treadmill. What they all mean is that we wish, plan and work for things that we think will make us happy, but when we finally get them, we aren't nearly as happy as we thought we'd be.

~Alison Gopnik

Topics: About Cycle Desire Endless Finally Get Happy Human Johnson Make Mean Nearly Plan Psychologists Samuel Say Social Talk Them Things Think Thought Trapped Treadmill Us Vanity Will Wish Wishes Work

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Psychologist

Born: June 16th, 1955

Links

Find Alison Gopnik on Amazon

Related Authors

Wayne Dyer
Albert Ellis
Erich Fromm
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Abraham Maslow
Virginia Satir
B. F. Skinner
Thomas Szasz

Popular Authors

Wayne Dyer Ralph Waldo Emerson William Golding Heraclitus Carl Jung Beyonce Knowles Abraham Lincoln Mother Teresa

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1901 - Walt Disney

1782 - Martin Van Buren

1783 - Simon Greenleaf

1830 - Christina Rossetti

1839 - George Armstrong Custer

1886 - Rose Wilder Lane

1890 - Fritz Lang

1901 - Werner Heisenberg

1902 - Strom Thurmond

1903 - Cecil Frank Powell

Birthdays on December 5th
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Chance Dad Design Friendship Medical Power War Wedding