71 quotes found
“Thats how history unfolds. People weave a web of meaning, believe in it with all their heart, but sooner or later the web unravels, and when we look back we cannot understand how anybody could have...”
“Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour quickly loses its relevance.”
“This is the paradox of historical knowledge. Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour loses its relevance. The more data we have and the better we u...”
“This is the best reason to learn history: not in order to predict the future, but to free yourself of the past and imagine alternative destinies. Of course this is not total freedom - we cannot avo...”
“the crucial factor in ourconquest of the world was our ability to connect many humans to one another.”
“Famine, plague and war will probably continue to claim millions of victims in the coming decades. Yet they are no longer unavoidable tragedies beyond the understanding and control of a helpless hum...”
“Consistency is the playground of dull minds”
“Why is English so widespread today, and not Danish?”
“Rather, when famine, plague or war break out of our control, we feel that somebody must have screwed up, we set up a commission of inquiry, and promise ourselves that next time well do better.”
“Patriarchy has been the normal in almost all agricultural and industrial societies. ...If patriarchy in Afro-Asia resulted from some chance occurrence, why were the Aztecs and Incas patriarchal? It...”
“How can we distinguish what is biologically determined from what people merely try to justify through biological myths? A good rule of thumb is Biology enables, Culture forbids. Biology is willing ...”
“If Kindle is upgraded with face recognition and biometric sensors, it can know what made you laugh, what made you sad and what made you angry. Soon, books will read you while you are reading them.”
“There are no gods, no nations, no money and no human rights, except in our collective imagination.”
“When humans began cultivating the land, they thought that the extra work this required will pay off. 'Yes, we will have to work harder. But the harvest will be so bountiful! We won't have to worry ...”
“Buddhism does not deny the existence of godsthey are described as powerful beings who can bring rains and victoriesbut they have no influence on the law that suffering arises from craving. If the m...”
“Sapiens dont behave according to a cold mathematical logic, but rather according to a warm social logic. We are ruled by emotions.”
“The currency of evolution is neither hunger nor pain, but rather copies of DNA helixes”
“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 act...”
“Many call this process 'the destruction of nature.' But it's not really destruction, it's change. Nature cannot be destroyed.”
“science says that nobody is ever made happy by getting a promotion, winning the lottery or even finding true love. People are made happy by one thing and one thing only - pleasant sensations in the...”
