Quotes About Reality

The Knowledge Illusion: We think we know a lot even though individually we know very little because we treat knowledge in the mind of others as if it were our own.

When we say 'I', we mean the story in our head, not the onrushing stream of experiences we undergo.

Most people presume that reality is either objective or subjective, and that there is no third option. Hence once they satisfy themselves that something isn't just their own subjective feeling, they jump to the conclusion it must be objective.

If you ask for the true meaning of life and get a story in reply, know that this is the wrong answer. The exact details don't really matter. Any story is wrong, simply for being a story. The universe just does not work like a story.

Homo sapiens can speak about things that don't really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast.

Written language may have been conceived as a modest way of describing reality, but it gradually became a powerful way to reshape reality. When official reports collided with objective reality, it was often reality that had to give way.

authentic realities can be manipulated by algorithms and TV cameras but rather that authenticity is a myth.

Myths continue to dominate humankind, and science only makes these myths stronger. Instead of destroying the intersubjective reality, science will enable it to control the objective and subjective realities more completely than ever before.

As bureaucracies accumulate power, they become immune to their own mistakes. Instead of changing their stories to fit reality, they can change reality to fit their stories. In the end external reality matches their bureaucratic fantasies, but only because they forced reality to do so.

An objective phenomenon exists independently of human consciousness and human beliefs. Radioactivity, for example, is not a myth. Radioactive emissions occurred long before people discovered them, and they are dangerous even when people do not believe in them.

The subjective is something that exists depending on the consciousness and beliefs of a single individual. It disappears or changes if that particular individual changes his or her beliefs.

the world manipulates you, in the end you realize that your core identity is a complex illusion created by neural networks.

Pain is pain, fear is fear, and love is love—even in the matrix.

happiness depends on expectations rather than objective conditions. We don't become satisfied by leading a peaceful and prosperous existence. Rather, we become satisfied when reality matches our expectations.

It doesn't matter if the fear you feel is inspired by a collection of atoms in the outside world or by electrical signals manipulated by a computer. The fear is still real. So if you want to explore the reality of your mind, you can do that inside the matrix as well as outside it.

el sufrimiento surge del deseo; la única manera de liberarse completamente del sufrimiento es liberarse completamente del deseo; y la única manera de liberarse del deseo es educar la mente para experimentar la realidad tal como es.

There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no lawn, no justice outside the common imagination of human beings

We identify with the inner system that takes the crazy chaos of life and spins out of it seemingly logical and consistent yarns. It doesn't matter that the plot is full of lies and lacunas, and is rewritten again and again, so that today's story flatly contradicts yesterday's. The important thing is that we always retain the feeling that we have a single unchanging identity from birth to death (and perhaps even beyond).

If something exists—it is by definition natural.

If you feel like running down the street crying 'The apocalypse is upon us!', try telling yourself 'No, it's not that. Truth is, I just don't understand what's going on in the world.

These are sets of rules that, despite existing only in our imagination, we believe to be as real and inviolable as gravity. 'If

Myths continue to dominate humankind, and science only makes these myths stronger. Instead of destroying the intersubjective reality, science will enable it to control the objective and subjective realities more completely than ever before. Thanks to computers and bioengineering, the difference between fiction and reality will blur, as people reshape reality to match their pet fictions.

solo Homo sapiens puede hablar sobre cosas que no existen realmente, y creerse seis cosas imposibles antes del desayuno.

On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations.