In the horrifying calculus of self-deception, the greater the pain we inflict on others, the greater the need to justify it to maintain our feelings of decency and self-worth.

The individualism of American life, to our glory and despair, creates anger and encourages its release for when everything is possible, limitations are irksome. When the desires of the self come first, the needs of others are annoying. When we think we deserve it all, reaping only a portion can enrage.

During McCarthyism, teachers feared for their jobs if they belonged to a left-wing group. Today teachers fear for their jobs if they hug a crying child. As in all moral panics, an accusation is enough to destroy a person's life. Hysteria trumps evidence.

Most people, when directly confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justification.

When it comes to food, there are two large categories of eaters, those who do not worry about what they eat but should, and those who do worry about what they eat but should not.

As in all moral panics, an accusation is enough to destroy a person's life. Hysteria trumps evidence.

Science is a form of arrogance control.

[Sexual] fantasies, like children, are most interesting to the people who have them.

In sports as in child rearing, marital arguments, or tantrums, the same laws of learning apply when an emotion is encouraged and the rules permit it, it is perpetuated, not 'drained.' ... An emotion without social rules of containment and expression is like an egg without a shell: a gooey mess.

Depression is not 'anger turned inward' if anything, anger is depression turned outward. Follow the trail of anger inward, and there you will find the small, still voice of pain.

For some of the large indignities of life, the best remedy is direct action. For the small indignities, the best remedy is a Charlie Chaplin movie. The hard part is knowing the difference.

Rebels and dissidents challenge the complacent belief in a just world, and they are usually denigrated for their efforts.

The history of the women's movement in America follows a consciousness-amnesia cycle.

Severe initiations increase a member's liking for the group.

A fan without a team is like a hog without truffles - she has nothing to root for.