“You are not in control of your mind—because you, as a conscious agent, are only part of your mind, living at the mercy of other parts. ”
— Sam Harris
“Your life doesn't get any better than your mind is: You might have wonderful friends, perfect health, a great career, and everything else you want, and you can still be miserable. The converse is also true: There are people who basically have nothing—who live in circumstances that you and I would do more or less anything to avoid—who are happier than we tend to be because of the character of their minds. Unfortunately, one glimpse of this truth is never enough. We have to be continually reminded of it.”
— Sam Harris
“From my point of view, compatibilism is a little like saying: a puppet is free so long as it loves its strings.”
— Sam Harris
“You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.”
— Sam Harris
“As a general matter, I believe we should be very slow to make conclusions about the nature of the cosmos based upon inner experience – no matter how profound these experiences seem.”
— Sam Harris
“The illusion of free will... is itself an illusion. There is no illusion of free will. Thoughts and intentions simply arise. What else could they do? Now, some of you might think this sounds depressing, but it's actually incredibly freeing to see life this way. It does take something away from life: what it takes away from life is an egocentric view of life. We're not truly separate: we are linked to one another, we are linked to the world, we are linked to our past, and to history.”
— Sam Harris
“The difference between science and religion is the difference between a willingness to dispassionately consider new evidence and new arguments, and a passionate unwillingness to do so.”
— Sam Harris
“Consciousness is the one thing in this universe that cannot be an illusion.”
— Sam Harris
“You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know.”
— Sam Harris