Howard Brown

“The person who behaves badly behaves so because of hurt, actual and expected, and lashes out in self-defense, as a cornered animal might.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“People were unable to fathom the full consequences of their decisions.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“summed up decades of governmental experience by saying that ‘You can do many things with bayonets, but it is rather uncomfortable to sit on them.’ A single priest often does the work of a hundred soldiers – far more cheaply and effectively. Moreover, no matter how efficient bayonets are, somebody must wield them. Why should the soldiers, jailors, judges and police maintain an imagined order in which they do not believe? Of all human collective activities, the one most difficult to organise is violence. To say that a social order is maintained by military force immediately raises the question: what maintains the military order? It is impossible to organise an army solely by coercion. At least some of the commanders and soldiers must truly believe in something, be it God, honour, motherland, manhood or”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Whenever they decided to do a bit of extra work – say, to hoe the fields instead of scattering seeds on the surface – people thought, ‘Yes, we will have to work harder. But the harvest will be so bountiful! We won’t have to worry any more about lean years. Our children will never go to sleep hungry.’ It made sense. If you worked harder, you would have a better life. That was the plan.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind