“There is no such thing as an average human being. If you have a normal brain, you are superior.”

“They stopped being machines. You see, they realize their superiority and they hate us. They hate everything human.”

“The thing was not discussable, even with a near acquaintance like Calvin because … because of the nature of the thing … because one had to behave like a normal, unworried human being. That at least was sound and clear and gave him comfort: behave like a normal human being.”

“Normal is the average of deviance.”

“Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top.”

“Behind a remarkable scholar we not infrequently find an average human being, and behind an average artist we often find a very remarkable human being.”

“The neurobiologist Harry Jerison has made a long study of the trajectory of brain evolution since the advent of life on dry land. …the origin of new faunal groups is usually accompanied by a jump in the relative size of the brain, known as encephalization. …the first archaic mammals… were equipped with brains four to five times bigger than the average reptilian brain… primates are twice as encephalized as the average mammal. Within primates, the apes… are some twice the average size. And humans are three times as encephalized as the average ape.”

“Captain, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.”

“What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.”

“Being beautiful can never hurt, but you have to have more. You have to sparkle, you have to be fun, you have to make your brain work if you have one.”