{"author":"Sam Harris","author_id":"Sam+Harris","total_quotes":127,"quotes":[{"text":"There is a sense in which all cognition can be said to be motivated. One is motivated to understand the world, to be in touch with reality, to remove doubt, etc. Alternately one might say that motivation is an aspect of cognition itself. Nevertheless, motives like wanting to find the truth, not wanting to be mistaken, etc., tend to align with epistemic goals in a way that many other commitments do not. As we have begun to see, all reasoning may be inextricable from emotion. But if a person's primary motivation in holding a belief is to hue to a positive state of mind, to mitigate feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, or guilt for instance. This is precisely what we mean by phrases like 'wishful thinking', and 'self-deception'. Such a person will of necessity be less responsive to valid chains of evidence and argument that run counter to the beliefs he is seeking to maintain. To point out non-epistemic motives in an others view of the world, therefore, is always a criticism, as it serves to cast doubt on a persons connection to the world as it is.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["cognition","emotion","morality","motivation","religion"],"id":3167,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"It is generally argued that our experience of free will presents a compelling mystery: On the one hand, we can't make sense of it in scientific terms; on the other, we feel that we are the authors of our own thoughts and actions.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["philosophy","psychology","religion"],"id":5597,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"False encouragement is a kind of theft: it steals time, energy, and motivation a person could put toward some other purpose.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["lying"],"id":8546,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"Religion provides the only story that is fundamentally consoling in the face of the worst possible experiences - the death of a parent, for instance. In fact, many religions take away the problem entirely, because their adherents ostensibly believe that they're going to be reunited with everyone they love, and death is an illusion.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["love","religion","believe "],"id":9337,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"It's simply untrue that religion provides the only framework for a universal morality.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["morality","universal "],"id":9873,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"Just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim Algebra, we will see tht there is no such thing as Christian or Muslim morality.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["christian","morality","muslim"],"id":12291,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"Habitual identification with discursive thought is the source of human suffering.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["happiness","philosophy-of-life"],"id":26424,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"The only differences between a cult and a religion are the numbers of adherents and the degree to which they are marginalized by the rest of society.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["atheism","consciousness","philosophy"],"id":28137,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["free-will"],"id":28561,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"},{"text":"Nothing guarantees that reasonable people will agree about everything, of course, but the unreasonable are certain to be divided by their dogmas. It is time we recognized that this spirit of mutual inquiry, which is the foundation of all real science, is the very antithesis of religious faith.","author":"Sam Harris","tags":["time","science","people "],"id":30426,"author_id":"Sam+Harris"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":127,"pages":13,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}