525 Quotes by Sam Harris

It is also true that the less competent a person is in a given domain, the more he will tend to overestimate his abilities. This often produces an ugly marriage of confidence and ignorance that is very difficult to correct for.

The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy. Because each new generation of children is taught that religious propositions need not be justified in the way that all others must, civilization is still being besieged by the armies of the preposterous. We are, even now, killing ourselves over ancient literature. Who would have thought something so tragically absurd could be possible?

Our pleasures, however refined or easily acquired, are by their very nature fleeting. They begin to subside the instant the arise, only to be replaced by fresh desires or feelings of discomfort.

The fascist says, "It's not what you think, or what you think you know, that is important. The only truth is whether or not you feel subjectively, spiritually, part of a larger national community __ and if you do, wonderful! And if you don't, then you're an enemy.

Every person is a puppet who didn't pick his own strings and those strings reach back to the big bang.

Scripture exists; human beings interpret it.

The intention to do one thing and not another does not originate in consciousness -- rather, it appears in consciousness, as does any thought or impulse that might oppose it.

Religion" is a term like "sports" ... To speak of sports as a generic activity makes it impossible to discuss what athletes actually do or the physical attributes to do it. What do all sports have in common apart from breathing? Not much. The term religion is hardly more useful.

A total prohibition against lying is also ethically incoherent in anyone but a true pacifist.