“Like a government diverting money from defense to education, humans diverted energy from biceps to neurons.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“People who do not believe in the same god or obey the same king are more than willing to use the same… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Yet, in fact, religion has been the third great unifier of humankind, alongside money and empires.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Corporations, money and nations exist only in our imagination.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Corporations, money and nations exist only in our imagination. We invented them to serve us. How come we find ourselves sacrificing our… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The typical premodern ruler gave money to priests, philosophers and poets in the hope that they would legitimise his rule and maintain… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Though Toyota or Argentina has neither a body nor a mind, they are subject to international laws, they can own land and… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
If we are allowed to do experiments on monkeys because we are superior to them in a certain way, then someone who… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Two lawyers who have never met can nevertheless combine efforts to defend a complete stranger because they both believe in the existence… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Like money, limited liability companies and human rights, nations and consumer tribes are inter-subjective realities. They exist only in our collective imagination,… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Sapiens, in contrast, live in triple-layered reality. In addition to trees, rivers, fears and desires, the Sapiens world also contains stories about… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Ideal types of money enable people not merely to turn one thing into another, but to store wealth as well. Many valuables… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Because money can convert, store and transport wealth easily and cheaply, it made a vital contribution to the appearance of complex commercial… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Money is more open-minded than language, state laws, cultural codes, religious beliefs and social habits. Money is the only trust system created… — 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
“...Money is also the apogee of human tolerance; money is more open-minded than language, state laws, culture codes, religious beliefs, and social… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“the hierarchy of rich and poor – which mandates that rich people live in separate and more luxurious neighbourhoods, study in separate… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
The truly unique trait of 'Sapiens' is our ability to create and believe fiction. All other animals use their communication system to… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“green monkey, for example, has been observed calling ‘Careful! A lion!’ when there was no lion around. This alarm conveniently frightened away… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
Money is the probably the most successful story ever told. It has no objective value... but then you have these master storytellers:… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“For thousands of years, philosophers, thinkers and prophets have besmirched money and called it the root of all evil. Be that as… — 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
“People are willing to do such things when they trust the figments of their collective imagination. Trust is the raw material from… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“It is relatively easy to accept that money is an intersubjective reality. Most people are also happy to acknowledge that ancient Greek… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Fiction isn't bad. It is vital. Without commonly accepted stories about things like money, states or corporations, no complex human society can… — 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… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“In the Middle Ages the outbreak of a plague caused people to raise their eyes towards heaven, and pray to God to… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Whereas traditionally the family was the main matchmaker, today it’s the market that tailors our romantic and sexual preferences, and then lends… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Capitalism began as a theory about how the economy functions. It was both descriptive and prescriptive – it offered an account of… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Money has an even darker side. For although money builds universal trust between strangers, this trust is invested not in humans, communities… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“What enables banks – and the entire economy – to survive and flourish is our trust in the future. This trust is… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“because 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
“Writing and money made it possible to start collecting taxes from hundreds of thousands of people, to organise complex bureaucracies and to… — 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… — 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
“Corporations, money and nations exist only in our imagination. We invented them to serve us; why do we find ourselves sacrificing our… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
We can suspend disbelief about Harry Potter, and we do the same thing with God, and we do the same thing with… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Everyone always wants money because everyone else also always wants money, which means you can exchange money for whatever you want or… — 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
