Robert Wright Quotes

• Your brain may give birth to any technology, but other brains will decide whether the technology thrives. The number of possible technologies is infinite, and only a few pass this test of affinity with human nature.

  Robert Wright

  Technology, Numbers, Giving

  Robert Wright (2001). “Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny”, p.37, Vintage

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• In the great non zero sum games of history, if you're part of the problem, then you'll likely be a victim of the solution.

  Robert Wright

  Zero, Games, Problem

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• ...human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their ignorance of the misuse.

  Robert Wright

  Ignorance, Moral, Equipment

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.21, Vintage

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• Piénsalo: millones y millones de organismos corriendo por ahí, cada uno bajo el hechizo hipnótico de una única verdad, todas estas verdades idénticas, y todas lógicamente incompatibles entre sí: "Mi material hereditario es el material más importante de la Tierra; su supervivencia justifica tu frustración, tu dolor, incluso tu muerte". Y tú eres uno de esos organismos, viviendo tu vida en la esclavitud de un absurdo lógico.

  Robert Wright

  Running, Pain, Frustration

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.440, Vintage

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• Like a lawyer, the human brain wants victory, not truth; and, like a lawyer, it is sometimes more admirable for skill than virtue.

  Robert Wright

  Skills, Victory, Brain

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• Religion is a feature of cultural evolution that, among other things, addresses anxieties created by cultural evolution; it helps keep social change safe from itself.

  Robert Wright

  Anxiety, Addresses, Safe

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• We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones.

  Robert Wright

  Animal, Not Happy, Built

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.390, Vintage

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• God knows greed won't vanish. Neither will hatred or chauvanism. Human nature is a stubborn thing. But it isn't beyond control. Even if our core impulses can;t be banished, they can be tempered and redirected.

  Robert Wright

  Hatred, Greed, Stubborn

  Robert Wright (2001). “Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny”, p.315, Vintage

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• If two people stare at each other for more than a few seconds, it means they are about to either make love or fight. Something similar might be said about human societies. If two nearby societies are in contact for any length of time, they will either trade or fight. The first is non-zero-sum social integration, and the second ultimately brings it.

  Robert Wright

  Zero, Mean, Fighting

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• Understanding the often unconscious nature of genetic control is the first step toward understanding that—in many realms, not just sex—we’re all puppets, and our best hope for even partial liberation is to try to decipher the logic of the puppeteer.

  Robert Wright

  Sex, Understanding, Trying

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.48, Vintage

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• Next time you see a yardful of sprouting dandelions, note that they look remarkably like things we call "flowers." And later, when the flowers turn into fluff balls, look closely at one of those fluff balls and ask yourself whether it's really so unattractive.

  Robert Wright

  Nature, Flower, Balls

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• We're all puppets, and our best hope for even partial liberation is to try to decipher the logic of the puppeteer. Just because natural selection created us doesn't mean we have to slavishly follow its peculiar agenda. (If anything, we might be tempted to spite it for all the ridiculous baggage it's saddled us with.)

  Robert Wright

  Mean, Trying, Peculiar

  "The Moral Animal". Book by Robert Wright, www.wired.com. 1994.

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• Quizá el crecimiento de "Dios" signifique la existencia de Dios. Es decir: si la historia empuja de forma natural a la gente hacia la mejora moral, hacia el crecimiento moral, y su Dios, tal y como ellos conciben a su Dios, crece en consecuencia, enriqueciéndose moralmente, entonces quizá este crecimiento sea la prueba de algún propósito superior, y quizá -concebiblemente- la fuente de ese propósito sea digna del nombre de divinidad.

  Robert Wright

  Moral Growth, Names, People

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Evolution Of God: The origins of our beliefs”, p.181, Hachette UK

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• Jesus is not from Georgia. Jesus does not speak English. And Jesus is not a member of the NRA.

  Robert Wright

  Jesus, Party, Reality

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• Giving men marriage tips is a little like offering Vikings a free booklet titled How Not to Pillage.

  Robert Wright

  Men, Offering, Giving

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.183, Vintage

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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.

  Robert Wright

  Greatness, Territory, Information

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.377, Vintage

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• En realidad, hay un sentido en el que el matrimonio poligínico no ha sido la norma histórica: incluso allí donde la poliginia está permitida, las esposas múltiples suelen estar reservadas a un número relativamente reducido de hombres que pueden permitírselas o que reúnen los requisitos a través de un rango formal. Durante eones y eones, la mayoría de los matrimonios han sido monógamos, aunque la mayoría de las sociedades no lo han sido.

  Robert Wright

  Men, Wife, Historical

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• Being a person's true friend means endorsing the untruths he holds dearest.

  Robert Wright

  True Friend, Mean, Persons

  Robert Wright (1994). “The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life”, Pantheon

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• Los seres humanos tienen varias formas de afrontar el estrés prolongado, y una de ellas es la anticipación de tiempos mejores. En este caso, como en el de la retribución, suele haber una especie de simetría: cuanto más intenso es el estrés y más desesperada es la situación, más fabulosos son los tiempos venideros que se anticipan.

  Robert Wright

  Stress, Way, Fabulous

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Evolution Of God: The origins of our beliefs”, p.116, Hachette UK

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• Mientras que el cinismo moderno trajo la desesperación sobre la capacidad de la especie humana para realizar ideales loables, el cinismo postmoderno no lo hace - no porque sea optimista, sino porque no puede tomar en serio los ideales en primer lugar. La actitud predominante es el Absurdismo. Una revista posmoderna puede ser irreverente, pero no amargamente irreverente, porque no lo es a propósito; su objetivo es indiscriminado, porque todo el mundo es igual de ridículo. Y, de todos modos, no hay ninguna base moral para emitir un juicio. Basta con sentarse y disfrutar del espectáculo.

  Robert Wright

  Attitude, Optimistic, Despair

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• Corruption is knowing when something is not being done, knowing when the American people are being left unprotected and when you make a decision not to do something to protect the American people And you effectively allow 9/11 to occur. That is the ultimate form of government corruption-dereliction of duty. That's subject in the military to prosecution, to court martial. Frankly, if not treason.

  Robert Wright

  Military, Knowing, Government

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• Next time you see an unblemished expanse of grass, think about the chemicals that probably got dumped in your vicinity to create it. Are you grateful for that?

  Robert Wright

  Nature, Grateful, Thinking

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• Si la guerra se convierte realmente en una reliquia, la virtud de la codicia retrocederá aún más. Desde el punto de vista de una sociedad determinada, una de las grandes ventajas de la adquisición desenfrenada de material ha sido tradicionalmente la forma en que impulsa el progreso tecnológico, que, después de todo, ayuda a mantener fuertes a las sociedades. En el siglo XIX, Rusia y Alemania no tenían muchas opciones para modernizarse; en aquella época, el inmovilismo invitaba a la conquista. Pero si las sociedades ya no se enfrentan a la conquista, el vertiginoso avance tecnológico es una oferta que pueden rechazar, y la frugalidad un lujo que pueden permitirse.

  Robert Wright

  Change, Strong, War

  Robert Wright (2001). “Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny”, p.314, Vintage

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• Once you the forces that govern behavior,it's harder to blame the behaver

  Robert Wright

  Blame, Behavior, Force

  Robert Wright (1994). “The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life”, Pantheon

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• ..various people had long had the feeling that gain through pain was nature's way

  Robert Wright

  Pain, Long, People

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.429, Vintage

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