Yuval Noah Harari
convince monkey banana heaven
“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
people believe imagined order christianity democracy capitalism
“How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
consistency dull mind
“Consistency is the playground of dull minds.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
culture forbid unnatural biological prohibition
“Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
iron law luxury necessity obligation
“One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
biology enable cultute forbid
“Biology enables, Culture forbids.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
money universal efficient system mutual trust
“money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
evolution homo sapiens social mammal xenophobic we they
“Evolution has made Homo sapiens, like other social mammals, a xenophobic creature. Sapiens instinctively divide humanity into two parts, ‘we’ and ‘they’.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
hierarchy function stranger treat personal acquaited
“Hierarchies serve an important function. They enable complete strangers to know how to treat one another without wasting the time and energy needed to become personally acquainted.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
stranger cooperate human state church city tribe myth imaginatio
“Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. Any large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe – is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
reaction human mind achievement satisfaction craving
“The most common reaction of the human mind to achievement is not satisfaction, but craving for more.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
sapiens rule world web meaning common imagination
“Sapiens rule the world because only they can weave an intersubjective web of meaning: a web of laws, forces, entities and places that exist purely in their common imagination. This web allows humans alone to organise crusades, socialist revolutions and human rights movements.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
truth life people meaning story
“Yet in truth the lives of most people have meaning only within the network of stories they tell one another.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
millions people smartphone control life drug cease human
“Every day millions of people decide to grant their smartphone a bit more control over their lives or try a new and more effective antidepressant drug. In pursuit of health, happiness and power, humans will gradually change first one of their features and then another, and another, until they will no longer be human.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
scientific discovery ignorance knowledge progress world science
“The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance. Once humans realised how little they knew about the world, they suddenly had a very good reason to seek new knowledge, which opened up the scientific road to progress.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
people fraid change fear unknown constant hitory
“People are usually afraid of change because they fear the unknown. But the single greatest constant of history is that everything changes.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
super-intelligent cyborg ordinary human animal cousin
“You want to know how super-intelligent cyborgs might treat ordinary flesh-and-blood humans? Better start by investigating how humans treat their less intelligent animal cousins. It’s not a perfect analogy, of course, but it is the best archetype we can actually observe rather than just imagine.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
paradox history knowledge vhange behaiour data outdated
“This is the paradox of historical knowledge. Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour quickly loses its relevance. The more data we have and the better we understand history, the faster history alters its course, and the faster our knowledge becomes outdated.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
scientists direction want thinking thought
“The only thing we can try to do is to influence the direction scientists are taking. Since we might soon be able to engineer our desires too, perhaps the real questions facing us is not 'What do we want to become?', but "What do we want to want?' Those who are not spooked by this question probably haven't given it enough thought.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
obesity victory consumerism eat diet economic
“Obesity is a double victory for consumerism. Instead of eating little, which will lead to economic contraction, people eat too much and then buy diet products - contributing to economic growth twice over.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
science viewpoint human life meaning evolution cosmic
“As far as we can tell, from a purely scientific viewpoint, human life has absolutely no meaning. Humans are the outcome of blind evolutionary processes that operate without goal or purpose. Our actions are not part of some divine cosmic plan, and if planet Earth were to blow up tomorrow morning, the universe would probably keep going about business as usual.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
consistency playground dull mind
"Consistency is the playground of dull minds"
― Yuval Noah Harari
science theory correct 100 percent knowledge truth utility
“Scientists generally agree that no theory is 100 percent correct. Thus, the real test of knowledge is not truth, but utility. Science gives us power. The more useful that power, the better the science.”
― Yuval Noah Harari
teacher information unimportant
"…the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and, above all, to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world."
― Yuval Noah Harari