“When Epicurus defined happiness as the supreme good, he warned his disciples that it is hard work to be happy.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Without government planning, economic resources and scientific research, individuals will not get far in their quest for happiness.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Perhaps it is also wrong to consider only the happiness of humans.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
Humans are extremely good in acquiring new power, but they are not very good in translating this power into greater happiness, which… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“If happiness is determined by expectations, then two pillars of our society – mass media and the advertising industry – may unwittingly… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Perhaps the key to happiness is neither the race nor the gold medal, but rather combining the right doses of excitement and… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“However, if they believed the promise of everlasting bliss in the afterlife, they may well have viewed their lives as far more… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Once we abandon the homo-centric world view in favour of a data-centric world view, human health and happiness may seem far less… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Philosophers, priests and poets have brooded over the nature of happiness for millennia, and many have concluded that social, ethical and spiritual… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“If I identify happiness with fleeting pleasant sensations, and crave to experience more and more of them, I have no choice but… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“science says that nobody is ever made happy by getting a promotion, winning the lottery or even finding true love. People are… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“When Epicurus defined happiness as the supreme good, he warned his disciples that it is hard work to be happy. Material achievements… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Family and community seem to have more impact on our happiness than money and health. People with strong families who live in… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Family and community seem to have more impact on our happiness than money and health. People with strong families who live in… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The problem, according to Buddhism, is that our feelings are no more than fleeting vibrations, changing every moment, like the ocean waves.… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“So perhaps happiness is synchronising one’s personal delusions of meaning with the prevailing collective delusions. As long as my personal narrative is… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Yet over the last few decades the tables have turned, and Bentham’s vision has been taken far more seriously. People increasingly believe… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“So perhaps happiness is synchronizing one's personal delusions of meaning with the prevailing collective delusions. As long as my personal narrative is… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“At the end of the eighteenth century the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham declared that the supreme good is ‘the greatest happiness of… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“If happiness is determined by expectations, then two pillars of our society – mass media and the advertising industry – may unwittingly… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Having secured unprecedented levels of prosperity, health and harmony, and given our past record and our current values, humanity’s next targets are… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“This Buddhist view of happiness has a lot in common with the biochemical view. Both agree that pleasant sensations disappear as fast… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“When Epicurus defined happiness as the supreme good, he warned his disciples that it is hard work to be happy. Material achievements… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Nobody is ever made happy by winning the lottery, buying a house, getting a promotion or even finding true love. People are… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The prediction that in the twenty-first century humankind is likely to aim for immortality, bliss and divinity may anger, alienate or frighten… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“humans may be unable to do so. The coming technological bonanza will probably make it feasible to feed and support these useless… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“In pursuit of health, happiness and power, humans will gradually change first one of their features and then another, and another, until… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“new cathedral. So perhaps happiness is synchronising one’s personal delusions of meaning with the prevailing collective delusions.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Nobody is ever made happy by winning the lottery, buying a house, getting a promotion or even finding true love. People are… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“happiness is not the surplus of pleasant over unpleasant moments. Rather, happiness consists in seeing one’s life in its entirety as meaningful… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
The basic human reaction to pleasure is not satisfaction, but rather craving for more. Hence, no matter what we achieve, it only… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Success breeds ambition, and our recent achievements are now pushing humankind to set itself even more daring goals. Having secured unprecedented levels… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The right to the pursuit of happiness, originally envisaged as a restraint on state power, has imperceptibly morphed into the right to… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“When the flames are completely extinguished, craving is replaced by a state of perfect contentment and serenity, known as nirvana (the literal… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Rather, happiness consists in seeing one’s life in its entirety as meaningful and worthwhile. There is an important cognitive and ethical component… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The crucial importance of human expectations has far-reaching implications for understanding the history of happiness. If happiness depended only on objective conditions… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Some scholars compare human biochemistry to an air-conditioning system that keeps the temperature constant, come heatwave or snowstorm. Events might momentarily change… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“There is only one historical development that has real significance. Today, when we finally realise that the keys to happiness are in… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Liberal politics is based on the idea that the voters know best, and there is no need for Big Brother to tell… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Countries measured their success by the size of their territory, the increase in their population and the growth of their GDP –… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“For similar reasons, archaic humans did not initiate any revolutions. As far as we can tell, changes in social patterns, the invention of new… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Today the main source of wealth is knowledge. And whereas you can conquer oil fields through war, you cannot acquire knowledge that way.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
I think the basic thing that happened is we have lost our story. Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Whereas chimpanzees spend five hours a day chewing raw food, a single hour suffices for people eating cooked food. The advent of cooking enabled… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Whereas liberalism merged with the milder versions of nationalism to protect the unique experiences of each human community, evolutionary humanists such as Hitler identified… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Corporations, money and nations exist only in our imagination. We invented them to serve us; why do we find ourselves sacrificing our lives in… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Small children in affluent societies often dislike showering, and it takes them years of education and parental discipline to adopt this supposedly attractive custom.… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Ever more scholars see cultures as a kind of mental infection or parasite, with humans as its unwitting host. Organic parasites, such as viruses,… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Soviet Communism was a fanatical and missionary religion. A devout Communist could not be a Christian or a Buddhist, and was expected to spread… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Whereas religion asks us to believe in something, money asks us to believe that other people believe in something” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
