Robert Wright quotes: top famous quotes and sayings by Robert Wright

Top Robert Wright Quotes

Browse top 15 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Robert Wright.

Favorite Robert Wright Quotes

1. "We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones." ~ Robert Wright

2. "Nature has gone to great lengths to hide our subconscious from ourselves. Why?" ~ Robert Wright

3. "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

4. "Here the contention is not just that the new Darwinian paradigm can help us realize whichever moral values we happen to choose. The claim is that the new paradigm can actually influence — legitimately — our choice of basic values in the first place. Some Darwinians insist that such influence can never be legitimate. What they have in mind is the naturalistic fallacy, whose past violation has so tainted their line of work. But what we're doing here doesn't violate the naturalistic fallacy. Quite the opposite. By studying nature — by seeing the origins of the retributive impulse — we see how we have been conned into committing the naturalistic fallacy without knowing it; we discover that the aura of divine truth surrounding retribution is nothing more than a tool with which nature — natural selection — gets us to uncritically accept its "values." Once this revelation hits norm, we are less likely to obey this aura, and thus less likely to commit the fallacy." ~ Robert Wright

5. "Once you the forces that govern behavior,it's harder to blame the behaver" ~ Robert Wright

6. "..various people had long had the feeling that gain through pain was nature's way" ~ Robert Wright

7. "???? ??? ????? ???????? ?????? ????????????? ????? — ????????????, ??????????, ??????????, ???????????? ?????, ???????????? ?????????? ????? ? ?? ??????. ??? ??????? ? ???? ??? ?????????? ??????????, ???????? ??????????? ???????? ??????? ????? ????? ? ????????, ????????? ??? ?????? ?????? ??????, ??????? ???? ?? ?????????? ???????? ? ? 1859 ????, ????? ?????? ? ???? «?????????????», ? ? 1959-? — ??? ?????? ????????????? ?????? ????? ???? ??????? ??????? ??????????????, ????? ?? ???????????? ????????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ????? ? ?????????? ?? ????????? ?????? ????????????? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ??? ????????? ????? ??????????? ? ????????????? ??????? ??????, ??????? ?? ??? ? ??????????? ????, ????? ???? ???????? ?????????? ?? ????, ??????? ?? ?????? ????, ??? ???????? ??????????? ???? ???????? ????????? ????????, ??????, ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???????????????? ?? ??? ??? ???????, ?? ????? ??????, ?????: ??, ??, ??, ?? ? ????? ??." ~ Robert Wright

8. "Humans have various ways of coping with extended stress, and one is the anticipation of a better time. Here, as with retribution, there is often a kind of symmetry: the more intense the stress and the more hopeless the situation, the more fabulous the coming times that are anticipated." ~ Robert Wright

9. "Altruism, compassion, empathy, love, conscience, the sense of justice—all of these things, the things that hold society together, the things that allow our species to think so highly of itself, can now confidently be said to have a firm genetic basis. That's the good news. The bad news is that, although these things are in some ways blessings for humanity as a whole, they didn't evolve for the "good of the species" and aren't reliably employed to that end. Quite the contrary: it is now clearer than ever how (and precisely why) the moral sentiments are used with brutal flexibility, switched on and off in keeping with self-interest; and how naturally oblivious we often are to this switching. In the new view, human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their constitutional ignorance of the misuse. The title of this book is not wholly without irony." ~ Robert Wright

10. "The idea is that human culture as broadly defined--art, politics, technology, religion, and so on--evolves in much the way biological species evolve: new cultural traits arise and may flourish or perish, and as a result whole institutions can belief systems form and change." ~ Robert Wright

11. "Perhaps the most legitimately dispiriting thing about reciprocal altruism is that it is a misnomer. Whereas with kin selection the "goal" of our genes is to actually help another organism, with reciprocal altruism the goal is that the organism be left under the impression that we've helped; the impression alone is enough to bring the reciprocation." ~ Robert Wright

12. "[L]asting love is something a person has to decide to experience. Lifelong monogamous devotion is just not natural—not for women even, and emphatically not for men. It requires what, for lack of a better term, we can call an act of will. . . . This isn't to say that a young man can't hope to be seized by love. . . . But whether the sheer fury of a man's feelings accurately gauges their likely endurance is another question. The ardor will surely fade, sooner or later, and the marriage will then live or die on respect, practical compatibility, simple affection, and (these days, especially) determination. With the help of these things, something worthy of the label 'love' can last until death. But it will be a different kind of love from the kind that began the marriage. Will it be a richer love, a deeper love, a more spiritual love? Opinions vary. But it's certainly a more impressive love." ~ Robert Wright

13. "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

14. "Kedykolvek ludia pocitujú prítomnost záhadnej a mohutnej sily, chcú uverit, že sa nájde spôsob, ako jej porozumiet. Pokial sa vám podarí ich presvedcit, že ste klúcom k jej pochopeniu, môžete dosiahnut vysoké postavenie." ~ Robert Wright

15. "The Chukchee, a people indigenous to Siberia, had their own special way of dealing with unruly winds. A Chukchee man would chant, "Western Wind, look here! Look down on my buttocks. We are going to give you some fat. Cease blowing!" The nineteenth-century European visitor who reported this ritual described it as follows: "The man pronouncing the incantation lets his breeches fall down, and bucks leeward, exposing his bare buttocks to the wind. At every word he claps his hands." ~ Robert Wright

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Today's Quote

If we discovered that we had only five minutes left to say all that we wanted to say, every telephone booth would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they loved them."
Author: Christopher Morley

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