Sam Harris quotes - page 4

Sam Harris is an American neuroscientist, philosopher, and author, known for his writings on religion, ethics, and the mind. His work often explores topics such as secularism, free will, and the intersection of science and spirituality. He is also recognized as a prominent public speaker and host of the popular podcast "Making Sense." Here are 200 of his quotes:

Our sense of free will results from a failure to appreciate this: We do not know what we intend to do until the intention itself arises. To understand this is to realize that we are not the authors of our thoughts and actions in the way that people generally suppose.

Sam Harris

One of the enduring pathologies of human culture is the tendency to raise children to fear and demonize other human beings on the basis of religious faith.

Sam Harris

Every lie haunts our future.

Sam Harris

Mormonism, it seems to me, is-objectively-just a little more idiotic than Christianity is. It has to be: because it is Christianity plus some very stupid ideas.

Sam Harris

It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum. There is no question but that nominally religious scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth R. Miller are doing lasting harm to our discourse by the accommodations they have made to religious irrationality.

Sam Harris

We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it. And, again, I wouldn't put someone who looks like me entirely outside the bull's-eye (after all, what would Adam Gadahn look like if he cleaned himself up?) But there are people who do not stand a chance of being jihadists, and TSA screeners can know this at a glance.

Sam Harris

The feeling that we call "I" seems to define our point of view in every moment, and it also provides an anchor for popular beliefs about souls and freedom of will. And yet this feeling, however imperturbable it may appear at present, can be altered, interrupted, or entirely abolished.

Sam Harris

Honesty is a gift we can give to others. It is also a source of power and an engine of simplicity. Knowing that we will attempt to tell the truth, whatever the circumstances, leaves us with little to prepare for. We can simply be ourselves.

Sam Harris

Speaking from personal experience, I think that losing the sense of free will has only improved my ethics - by increasing my feelings of compassion and forgiveness, and diminishing my sense of entitlement to the fruits of my own good luck.

Sam Harris

Consciousness is the one thing in this universe that cannot be an illusion.

Sam Harris

Our circumstance is abject, indefensible, and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high.

Sam Harris

The self that does not survive scrutiny is the subject of experience in each present moment-the feeling of being a thinker of thoughts inside one's head, the sense of being an owner or inhabitant of a physical body, which this false self seems to appropriate as a kind of vehicle. Even if you don't believe such a homunculus exists-perhaps because you believe, on the basis of science, that you are identical to your body and brain rather than a ghostly resident therein-you almost certainly feel like an internal self in almost every waking moment. And yet, however one looks for it, this self is nowhere to be found. It cannot be seen amid the particulars of experience, and it cannot be seen when experience itself is viewed as a totality. However, its absence can be found-and when it is, the feeling of being a self disappears.

Sam Harris

Let's just grant the possibility that there is a Creator God, who's omniscient, who occasionally authors books. And he's gonna give us a book – the most useful book. He's a loving God, he's a compassionate God, and he's gonna give us a guide to life. He's got a scribe, the scribe's gonna write it down. What's gonna be in that book? I mean just think of how good a book would be if it were authored by an omniscient deity. I mean, there is not a single line in the Bible or the Koran that could not have been authored by a first century person. There is not one reference to anything – there are pages and pages about how to sacrifice animals, and keep slaves, and who to kill and why. There's nothing about electricity, there's nothing about DNA, there's nothing about infectious disease, the principles of infectious disease. There's nothing particularly useful, and there's a lot of iron age barbarism in there, and superstition. This is not a candidate book.

Sam Harris

[On being "genial, soft-spoken and unflappable" despite having "hard arguments"]: As far as my being friendly to most of my opponents, it comes from the fact that none of this is personal. I don't take any of this personal. I don't take any criticism of my ideas personal, and as far as I'm concerned, everything I believe is on the table and fit to be challenged. There's nothing I'm holding back, there's nothing that I'm holding sacred, such that if you were to doubt it, I would take your doubt personal, or I would see it as something that would diminish me personally.

Sam Harris

I think the apostates, the intellectuals, the women, the gays of the Muslim world are the most important people in the world right now. If we could give greencards to every real secularist in the Muslim world, I think they should just get to the front of the line. These are the people who need to be empowered. The irony is that if they could leave the Muslim world... The Muslim world needs them, so the best thing would be to empower them in the Muslim world. [...] Everything I say about Islam is a confession of solidarity with these people.

Sam Harris

But from a deeper perspective (speaking both objectively and subjectively), thoughts simply arise unauthored and yet author our actions.

Sam Harris

Happiness and suffering, however extreme, are mental events. The mind depends upon the body, and the body upon the world, but everything good or bad that happens in your life must appear in consciousness to matter. This fact offers ample opportunity to make the best of bad situations-changing your perception of the world is often as good as changing the world-but it also allows a person to be miserable even when all the material and social conditions for happiness have been met. During the normal course of events, your mind will determine the quality of your life.

Sam Harris

Many people who experience illness imagine that everyone else is blissfully getting on with life in perfect health-and this illusion compounds their suffering.

Sam Harris

It is therefore not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ. It should be blindingly obvious that beliefs of this sort will do little to help us create a durable future for ourselves- socially, economically, environmentally, or geopolitically.

Sam Harris

The treatment of women in Muslim communities throughout the world is unconscionable.

Sam Harris

We are, even now, killing ourselves over ancient literature. Who would have thought something so tragically absurd could be possible?

Sam Harris

To lie is to intentionally mislead others when they expect honest communication.

Sam Harris