525 Quotes by Sam Harris

The more we understand ourselves at the level of the brain, the more we will see that there are right and wrong answers to questions of human values.

Needless to say, this would be an unthinkable crime – as it would kill tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single day – but it may be the only course of action available to us, given what Islamists believe.

It’s simply untrue that religion provides the only framework for a universal morality.

I take seriously the idea that we’re in a simulation. I have no idea whether or not it’s true, but if it is, if we are in a simulation, it’s not that nothing is real, not that there are no tables and chairs and trees. Rather, it’s that they exist in a different form from what we first thought. There’s a level of computation underneath what we take to be physical reality.

You are not in control of your mind – because you, as a conscious agent, are only part of your mind, living at the mercy of other parts.

If you are perpetually angry, depressed, confused, and unloving, or your attention is elsewhere, it won’t matter how successful you become or who is in your life – you won’t enjoy any of it.

In the best case, faith leaves otherwise well-intentioned people incapable of thinking rationally about many of their deepest concerns; at worst, it is a continuous source of human violence.

Everything we want to accomplish – to paint the house, learn a new language, find a better job – is something that promises that, if done, it would allow us to finally relax and enjoy our lives in the present. Generally speaking, this is a false hope.

On one level, wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow one’s own advice.