Richard Brodie > Quotes

“If you listen repeatedly to religious speech, after enough repetitions you will actually begin to notice God and His works where there was just chaotic life going on before. What was formerly chance becomes a miracle. What was pain is now karma. What was human nature is now sin. And regardless of whether these religious memes are presented as Truth or as allegorical mythology, you’re conditioned just the same.”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“Many myths and religions have some kind of threat of retribution from their god or gods, and their doctrines warn of the dangers of doing various forbidden things. Why? Because memes involving danger are the ones we pay attention to! As oral traditions developed, our brains were set up to amplify the dangers and give them greater significance than the rest.”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“stressful year after year? One reason is the ever-evolving army of mind viruses, taking over a greater and greater”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“No matter what situation you’re in, you always have a choice.”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“What do you want? Let’s just start with the basics. Write down anything that you want in your life. These can be big or small things.”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“Currently a controversial topic, evolutionary”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“work”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“I can do just about anything if I choose to make it a high enough priority and devote enough time, money, and energy to it.”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“From now on, every time you are about to say “I can’t,” think about what you really mean. Often it’s a “polite” way of saying that something is simply not important enough to you right now, given your priorities.”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“future”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“What would happen if you didn’t do the thing you “have to” do?”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“Only take advice from people with lives you like.”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“The power of meme evolution has brought us to an era where the federal government sees nothing wrong with mandating a national speed limit, controlling access to health care, and deciding which drugs people will be imprisoned for using and which will be subsidized by the taxpayers.”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“Dan Quayle, mutating the memes in the United Negro College Fund’s motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” There is some good news in this book. So before I get into how mind viruses are spreading wildly throughout the world—infecting people with unwanted programming like the Michelangelo computer virus infects computers with self-destruct instructions—I’ll start with the good news. . . .”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“How about this one: you are simply a distinction—a meme—invented because it was convenient to talk about the parts of the universe that feel pain when hit with a hammer. To the universe, there’s no you . . . or human beings or giraffes or solar systems or galaxies. All those are human-invented distinctions. They are all memes.”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“Describe your ideal job. Go into detail about how you would feel, what experiences you would have, and how you would be treated.”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“We make the best choices we can, given who we are and what we know. To make better choices—know more!”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“If you find yourself regretting or resenting the past, or dwelling on it—is that the best choice as to how to be expending your energy right now? How about taking the point of view that you made the best choices you could make at the time, and turning your attention to the present?”
― Richard Brodie, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help

“A Threat to Humanity”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“فرد خود را ناگزیر می‌یابد که یک اعتقاد درونی را صادق صواب یا ارزشمند انگارد، اعتقادی که به نظر نمی‌رسد نیازی به شواهد یا استدلال داشته باشد، اما بااین‌حال شخص احساس می‌کند که کاملاً مجاب‌کننده و متقاعدکننده است. نام چنین باوری را "ایمان" می‌گذاریم، در مرحله بعد، فرد قوت و تزلزل‌ناپذیری ایمان را فضیلتی می‌داند گرچه ایمان پایه‌ای در شواهد ندارد. در حقیقت فرد احساس می‌کند هرچه شواهد کمتر باشند، آن باور ارزشمندتر است.”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

“As we discovered during Prohibition, the good the government does by reducing drug use must be weighed against the harm done in supporting the criminal underground that serves this black market, not to mention the loss of individual freedom caused by the state imposing its group morality on everyone.”
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme