“Ever more scholars see cultures as a kind of mental infection or parasite, with humans as its unwitting host. Organic parasites, such… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“In the twenty-first century it sounds childish to compare the human psyche to a steam engine. Today we know of a far… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Cultural ideas live inside the minds of humans. They multiply and spread from one host to another, occasionally weakening the hosts and… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“We want the ability to re-engineer our bodies and minds in order, above all, to escape old age, death and misery, but… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“We won’t be able to grasp the full implications of novel technologies such as artificial intelligence if we don’t know what minds… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Henceforth, attachment to ‘my house’ and separation from the neighbours became the psychological hallmark of a much more self-centred creature.” — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
The widespread assumption is that somehow, the brain produces the mind; somehow millions of neurons fire signals at one another create or… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“In the twenty-first century we will create more powerful fictions and more totalitarian religions than in any previous era. With the help… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Gautama’s insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction. When the… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Simultaneously, scientists have studied the mental states of people considered to be healthy and normative. However, most relevant researches have been conducted… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“This is the basic lesson of evolutionary psychology: a need shaped in the wild continues to be felt subjectively even if it… — 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
“We want the ability to re-engineer our bodies and minds in order, above all, to escape old age, death and misery, but… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Just as the spectrums of light and sound are far broader than what we humans can see and hear, so the spectrum… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The experiment changed Sally’s life. In the following days she realised she has been through a ‘near-spiritual experience…what defined the experience was… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“The ideal elder may suffer from bodily ailments and weaknesses, but his mind is quick and sharp, and he has eighty years… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Gautama’s insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction. When the… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“fact, however, the lesson is just the opposite. The story demonstrates that by humanising animals we usually underestimate animal cognition and ignore… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves that the pleasure will remain and will intensify. Therefore, the mind is always dissatisfied… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
Buddhism maintains that the common reaction of the human mind to pleasure and to achievement is not satisfaction; it's craving for more. — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“Gautama’s insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, it usually reacts with craving, and craving always involves dissatisfaction. When the… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“In the nineteenth century, scientists described brains and minds as if they were steam engines. Why steam engines? Because that was the… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“In the course catalogue of the psychology department at my own university, the first required course in the curriculum is ‘Introduction to… — Yuval Noah Harari Copy Share Image
“When the mind experiences something distasteful it craves to be rid of the irritation. When the mind experiences something pleasant, it craves… — 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
