Quotes from Yuval Noah Harari

In the twenty-first century our personal data is probably the most valuable resource most humans still have to offer, and we are giving it to the tech giants in exchange for email services and funny cat videos. From

If you suffer because of your belief in God or in the nation, that does not prove that your beliefs are true. Maybe you are just paying the price of your gullibility. However, most people don't like to admit that they are fools. Consequently, the more they sacrifice for a particular belief, the stronger their faith becomes.

Humans are used to thinking about life as a drama of decision-making.

For real peace is not the mere absence of war. Real peace is the implausibility of war. There has never been real peace in the world.

An empire that cannot sustain a blow and remain standing is not really an empire.

It is extremely hard to discover the truth when you are ruling the world. You are just far too busy.

God is dead – it's just taking a while to get rid of the body.

It is healthier for us to have questions we cannot answer, than to have answers we cannot question.

To run fast, don't take much baggage with you. Leave all your illusions behind. They are very heavy.

Telling effective stories is not easy. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it.

To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and feel at home with the unknown.

scientific research can flourish only in alliance with some religion or ideology. The ideology justifies the costs of the research. In exchange, the ideology influences the scientific agenda and determines what to do with the discoveries.

Would the book of Genesis have declared that Neanderthals descend from Adam and Eve, would Jesus have died for the sins of the Denisovans, and would the Qur'an have reserved seats in heaven for all righteous humans, whatever their species?

Social cooperation is our key for survival and reproduction.

One of history's few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations

Suffering is not an objective condition in the outside world. It is a mental reaction generated by my own mind.

Just as the Atlantic slave trade did not stem from hatred towards Africans, so the modern animal industry is not motivated by animosity. Again, it is fuelled by indifference.

The real test of 'knowledge' is not whether it is true, but whether it empowers us.

We aren't born with a ready-made conscience. As we pass through life, we hurt people and people hurt us, we act compassionately and others show compassion to us. if we pay attention, our moral sensitivity sharpens and these experiences become a source of valuable ethical knowledge about what is good, what is right and who I really am.

According to the Buddha, then, life has no meaning, and people don't need to create any meaning. They just need to realise that there is no meaning, and thus be liberated from the suffering caused by our attachments and our identification with empty phenomena.

Total annihilation has a way of sharpening people's minds.

Big Data algorithms might create digital dictatorships in which all power is concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite while most people suffer not from exploitation, but from something far worse – irrelevance.

War is obsolete You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict Famine is disappearing You are at more risk of obesity than starvation Death is just a technical problem Equality is out – but immortality is in What does our future hold?

Modernity is a surprisingly simple deal. The entire contract can be summarised in a single phrase: humans agree to give up meaning in exchange for power.