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Robert Wright

Robert Wright Quotes

Journalist

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Famous Robert Wright Quotes

“Humans have various ways of coping with extended stress, and one is the anticipation of a better time. Here, as with retribution, there is often a kind of symmetry: the more intense the stress and the more hopeless the situation, the more fabulous the coming times that are anticipated.”

WayHumansKindSituationStressVariousIntenseHopelessAnticipationFabulousCopingRetributionSymmetry
Book:The Evolution Of God: The origins of our beliefs
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“Darwin was one of our finest specimens. He did superbly what human beings are designed to do: manipulate social information to personal advantage. The information in question was the prevailing account of how human beings, and all organisms, came to exist; Darwin reshaped it in a way that radically raised his social status. When he died in 1882, his greatness was acclaimed in newspapers around the world, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, not far from the body of Isaac Newton. Alpha-male territory.”

WorldWayHumansBodySocialHuman BeingsInformationGreatnessEvolutionAdvantageAccountsDiedRaisedMalesNewspapersAround The WorldTerritoryBuriedOrganismsFinestManipulateNewtonAlpha MalePrevailingIsaacAlphasAbbeySocial StatusWestminsterWestminster Abbey
Book:The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
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“If war can indeed be turned into a relic, then the virtue of greed will recede further. From a given society's standpoint, one big upside of wanton material acquisition has traditionally been the way it drives technological progress-which, after all, helps keep societies strong. In the nineteenth century, Russia ans Germany had little choice about modernizing; in those days stasis invited conquest. But if societies no longer face conquest, breakneck technological advance is an offer they can refuse, and frugality a luxury people can afford.”

PeopleIfsWayLittlesWarHelpingBigsFacesChoicesStrongGivenChangeVirtueProgressCenturyMaterialsOffersGreedRefuseRussiaLuxuryGermanyTechnologicalInvitedConquestAcquisitionStandpointNineteenth CenturyRelicsFrugalityWantonTechnological ProgressStasis
Book:Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
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