“Hunter-gatherers spent their time in more stimulating and varied ways, and were less in danger of starvation and disease. The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. Rather, it translated into population explosions and pampered elites. The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return. The Agricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud.2 Who was responsible? Neither kings, nor priests, nor merchants. The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than vice versa.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
“How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
“History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
“Two thousand years of monotheistic brainwashing have caused most Westerners to see polytheism as ignorant and childish idolatry. This is an unjust stereotype.”
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
― Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
HPL Reads Book Club
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This is the online book club for the Houston Public Library. We are a dynamic public library that serves one of the largest service areas in Texas – m ...more
Underground Knowledge — A discussion group
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This global discussion group has been designed to encourage debates about important and underreported issues of our era. All you need is an enquiring ...more
Damodar’s 2025 Year in Books
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