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“A similar thing happens when we make judgments about our abilities relative to others. All other things being equal, we rate our ability on a given task as above average, but we rate other people’s ability at the same task at or below average (Suls, Lemosk, & Stewart, 2002; Kruganski & Mayselers, 1990).”
― Suzanne L. Davis, Ten Interesting Things about Human Behavior

“A black man, Benjamin Banneker, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, predicted accurately a solar eclipse, and was appointed to plan the new city of Washington, wrote to Thomas Jefferson: I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us; and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same facilities. . . . Banneker asked Jefferson “to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed.” Jefferson tried his best, as an enlightened, thoughtful individual might. But the structure of American society, the power of the cotton plantation, the slave trade, the politics of unity between northern and southern elites, and the long culture of race prejudice in the colonies, as well as his own weaknesses—that combination of practical need and ideological fixation—kept Jefferson a slaveowner throughout his life.”
― Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

“In forager societies, political dominance generally resides with the person possessing the best social skills rather than the most developed musculature.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Mr. Roark, we’re alone here. Why don’t you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us.” “But I don’t think of you.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead