JG

Author

John Gray

/john-gray-quotes-and-sayings

18 Quotes
3 Works

Author Summary

About John Gray on QuoteMust

John Gray currently has 18 indexed quotes and 3 linked works on QuoteMust. This page is the canonical destination for that author archive.

Works

Books and titles linked to this author

False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus Perros de paja: Reflexiones sobre los humanos y otros animales

Quotes

All quote cards for John Gray

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Modern humanism is the faith that through science humankind can know the truth- and to be free. But if Darwin's theory of natural selection is true this is impossible. The human mind serves evolutionary success, not truth. To think otherwise is to resurrect the pre-Darwinian error that humans are different from all other animals. (...) There is no mechanism of selection in the history of ideas akin to that of the natural selection of genetic mutations in evolution.(...) Among humans, the best deceivers are those who deceive themselves: 'we deceive ourselves in order to deceive others better'. A lover who promises eternal fidelity s more likely to be believed if he believes his promise himself; he is no more likely to keep his promise.(...) In a competition for mates, a well-developed capacity for self-deception is an advantage.

JG
John Gray

Perros de paja: Reflexiones sobre los humanos y otros animales

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Those who ignore the destructive potential of new technologies can do so only because they ignore history . Pogroms are as old as Christendom , but without railways, the telegraph and poison gas there could have been no Holocaust. (..) Scientific fundamentalism claim that science is the disinterested pursuit of the truth. But to represent science in this way is to disregard the human needs science serves. Among us science serves two needs: for hope and censorship. Today only science supports the myth of progress. If people cling to the hope of progress, it is not so much from genuine belief as from fear of what may come if they give it up.

JG
John Gray

Perros de paja: Reflexiones sobre los humanos y otros animales

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The Buddhist ideal of awakening implies that we can sever our links with our evolutionary past. We can raise ourselves from the sleep in which other animals pass their lives. Our illusions dissolved, we need no longer suffer. This is only another doctrine of salvation, subtler than that of the Christians, but no different from Christianity in its goal of leaving our animal inheritance behind. But the idea that we can rid ourselves of animal illusion is the greatest illusion of all. meditation may give us a fresher view of things but cannot uncover them as they are in themselves.

JG
John Gray

Perros de paja: Reflexiones sobre los humanos y otros animales