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Sapiens Quotes

Browse 50 quotes about Sapiens.

Sapiens Quotes

“How can we distinguish what is biologically determined from what people merely try to justify through biological myths? A good rule of thumb is ‘Biology enables, Culture forbids.’ Biology is willing to tolerate a very wide spectrum of possibilities. It’s culture that obliges people to realize some possibilities while forbidding others. Biology enables women to have children – some cultures oblige women to realize this possibility. Biology enables men to enjoy sex with one another – some cultures forbid them to realize this possibility. Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behavior, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist.”

CultureNatureNaturalHumanBiologySapiens
Book:קיצור תולדות האנושות
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“Sapiens (Sonnet 1410) Sapiens is a promise to stand grounded in people, Sapiens is a duty to stand firm on principle. Sapiens is an alarm to wake up from apathy, Sapiens is mindful revolt against inherited atrocity. Sapiens is rightful rebellion against dehumanizing intellect, Sapiens is sentient uproar against puritanism boneheaded. Sapiens is the saintly answer to the clarion call of life, True sapiens is saintly sapiens, all else is desecration of life.”

HumanityHuman NatureHumanSocial JusticeHumanismHumanitarianHuman LifeHumanistHuman BehaviorSapiens
Book:Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
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“When humans began cultivating the land, they thought that the extra work this required will pay off. 'Yes, we will have to work harder. But the harvest will be so bountiful! We won't have to worry any more about lean years. Our children will never go to sleep hungry.' It made sense. If you worked harder, you would have a better life. That was the plan. The first part of the plan went smoothly. People indeed worked harder. But people did not foresee that the number of children would increase, meaning that the extra wheat would have to be shared between more children. Neither did the early farmers understand that feeding children with more porridge and less breast milk would weaken their immune system, and that permanent settlements would be hotbeds for infectious diseases. They did not foresee that by increasing their dependence on a single source of food, they were actually exposing themselves even more to the depredations of drought. Nor did the farmers foresee that in good years their bulging granaries would tempt thieves and enemies, compelling them to start building walls and doing guard duty.”

HumansHistoryEvolutionHumanAgricultureSapiensAgricultural RevolutionAnthropolgy
Book:קיצור תולדות האנושות
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“For the human mind in its polarity of the male and female modes of experience, in its passages from infancy to adulthood and old age, in its toughness and tenderness, and in its continuing dialogue with the world, is the ultimate mythogenetic zone -the creator and destroyer, the slave and yet the master, of all the gods.”

MindReligionBrainEvolutionMythEvolutionary PsychologySapiensHomo
Book:The Masks of God, Volume 1: Primitive Mythology
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“Sapient or Savage (The Sonnet) To be or not to be, That is not the question. To be human or stay animal, That is the question. Human and animal, What is the difference! To be animal is to be selfish, To be human is to go beyond the self. There's more to life than us and them, There's more to life than loss and gain. There's more to life than money and fame, There's more to life than dogmatic lanes. To be or not to be, that is not the question. Be sapient or stay savage, it's your decision.”

Life LessonsSelfishnessHuman BehaviorEvolutionary PsychologySelf RegulationCivilized BeingsPrimitive Human BehaviorSapiensHumanist PoemPsychology Poetry
Book:Find A Cause Outside Yourself: Sermon of Sustainability
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“Hoy en día, después de dos guerras mundiales y tres revoluciones decisivas, sabemos que no existe por fuerza ninguna correlación entre la tecnología avanzada y la moralidad avanzada. Muchos hombres primitivos cuyo control sobre su entorno es rudimentario, se las ingenian a pesar de todo para ser felices, virtuosos y, dentro de sus limitaciones, creativos. A la inversa, los miembros de las sociedades civilizadas, poseídos por los recursos tecnológicos que les permiten ejercer un considerable control sobre el entorno, a menudo son llamativamente infelices, están inadaptados y en modo alguno son creativos; si bien la moral privada es tolerablemente buena, la conducta colectiva es salvaje, hasta el punto de rayar en la monstruosidad.”

HumanidadPazTecnologiaSapiensCognicion
Book:Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience
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“Rather than heralding a new era of easy living, the Agricultural Revolution left farmers with lives generally more difficult and less satisfying than those of foragers. Hunter-gatherers spent their time in more stimulating and varied ways, and were less in danger of starvation and disease. The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. Rather, it translated into population explosions and pampered elites. The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud.”

HumansHistoryHumankindAgricultureSapiensAgricultural RevolutionAnthropolgy
Book:קיצור תולדות האנושות
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“El cambio que altera lo actualmente predecible y ordenado también implica potencial para avanzar hacia un futuro más prometedor. Lo inesperado es, en sí mismo, información, una información necesaria para la expansión constante de la competencia adaptativa. Esa información viene envuelta en peligro y promesa.”

SapiensCerebroPeligroCognicionAmenazaPsiquis
Book:Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief
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“Hay que decir que nunca sobrevaloraremos la importancia del lenguaje en la vida de los seres humanos. En realidad, lo que hace que seamos humanos y no ya una especie más de simios es nuestra capacidad de hablar. Esto nos ha dado poder para crear una herencia social, de modo que nos es dado acumular el conocimiento amasado en el pasado, y nos ha dado también el poder de analizar la experiencia, que nos llega en forma muy caótica, y darle un sentido en función de nuestros particulares fines biológicos y sociales. Éste es el don más grande que el hombre jamás ha recibido o se ha dado a sí mismo, el don del lenguaje. Pero hemos de recordar que a pesar de que el lenguaje nos es absolutamente esencial, puede ser también absolutamente fatal porque lo utilizamos indebidamente.”

LibrosHumanosLecturaLenguajeSapiensCognicionPsicologia EvolutivaCerebrosConocimientos
Book:Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience
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“Es la aprehensión clara del peligro mortal y la posibilidad infinita que acecha por todas partes la que ha potenciado la consciencia humana mucho más allá de su pariente más cercano, en un proceso que se ha prolongado durante eras. Somos capaces de ver lo desconocido en todo, como consecuencia de nuestros sistemas cognitivos elaborados: peor aún (mejor): somos capaces de ver el peligro mortal en todo lo desconocido. Ellos nos hace sin duda angustiados, pero también (si no salimos corriendo) despiertos.”

SociedadHumanosEvolucionSapiensAngustiaPsicología EvolutivaAlerta
Book:Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief
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“If the curtain is indeed about to drop on Sapiens history, we members of one of its final generations should devote some time to answering one last question: what do we want to become? This question, sometimes known as the Human Enhancement question, dwarfs the debates that currently preoccupy politicians, philosophers, scholars and ordinary people. After all, today’s debate between today’s religions, ideologies, nations and classes will in all likelihood disappear along with Homo sapiens. If our successors indeed function on a different level of consciousness (or perhaps possess something beyond consciousness that we cannot even conceive), it seems doubtful that Christianity or Islam will be of interest to them, that their social organisation could be Communist or capitalist, or that their genders could be male or female.”

HistorySapiensExistential Threats
Book:Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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“Imaginative humans came together to hunt, farm, trade, and build incrementally sophisticated tools for transportation, communication, productivity, and convenience. ... Tribes and villages became kingdoms and empires, only to later dissolve into the cities and countries of a global civilization. ... Today, we live in concrete jungles, store fruit in fridges, cook oats with microwaves, and carry smartphones in our pockets. Electricity lights up our world, while the energy for it comes from increasingly sustainable sources. Global warming has finally convinced us to grow our food and fuel our activities in ways that do not pollute the planet, exhaust ecosystems, or exploit our fellow animals. We now seek to preserve the environmental stability of the last 10,000 years, during which our species transformed from a few million wandering foragers to nearly ten billion technological titans. Today, we are masters of science, exploring everything from the cosmic to the quantum. We discuss Einstein’s gravity and spacetime relativity, while decoding the molecular mysteries of life and longevity. We fling satellites into orbit, hook computers up to an internet, and seed our society with intelligent programs and robots.”

HumansScienceHistoryTechnologyMankindEvolutionCivilizationSapiens
Book:Tool Makers: A Concise History of Humans & Science
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