Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Vintage, 2015 edition; first published in Hebrew 2011; translated by the author with John Purcell and Haim Watzman)

Yuval Noah Harari · c. 2011–2015

Yuval Noah Harari did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Cooking was the best thing fire did for early humans

Their wordsBut the best thing fire did was cook.

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Our reading
Language let early Sapiens gossip, and reliable gossip about who could be trusted let small bands grow into larger ones

Their wordsReliable information about who could be trusted meant that small bands could expand into larger bands, and Sapiens could develop tighter and more sophisticated types of cooperation.

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Our reading
Most people cannot intimately know or gossip effectively about more than about 150 people
Mental modelBottlenecks

Their wordsMost people can neither intimately know, nor gossip effectively about, more than 150 human beings.

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Our reading
Human organisations still hit a critical threshold at around 150 people
Mental modelBottlenecks

Their wordsEven today, a critical threshold in human organisations falls somewhere around this magic number.

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Our reading
The limited liability company is among humanity's most ingenious inventions

Their wordsThe idea behind such companies is among humanity's most ingenious inventions.

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Our reading
An imagined reality is not a lie
Mental modelThe map is not the territory

Their wordsAn imagined reality is not a lie.

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Our reading
The hard part of a shared story is not telling it but getting everyone else to believe it
Mental modelCollective action problems

Their wordsThe difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it.

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Our reading
Because Sapiens cooperate through myths, they could change their behaviour rapidly by changing their myths

Their wordsConsequently, ever since the Cognitive Revolution Homo sapiens has been able to revise its behaviour rapidly.

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Our reading
Wheat domesticated Homo sapiens rather than the other way round

Their wordsWe did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.

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Our reading
The farmers' pursuit of an easier life led to much hardship
Mental modelSecond-order thinking

Their wordsThe pursuit of an easier life resulted in much hardship, and not for the last time.

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Our reading
Agriculture did not need every band to adopt it; one settled band was enough to spread it

Their wordsBut the Agricultural Revolution didn't need every band in a given region to join up. It only took one.

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Our reading
People believe in an imagined order because it enables them to cooperate, not because it is objectively true
Mental modelThe map is not the territory

Their wordsWe believe in a particular order not because it is objectively true, but because believing in it enables us to cooperate effectively and forge a better society.

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Our reading
To make people believe in an imagined order you never admit that it is imagined

Their wordsFirst, you never admit that the order is imagined.

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Our reading
One person cannot change an imagined order alone, because it lives in millions of minds
Mental modelCollective action problems

Their wordsEven if by some superhuman effort I succeed in freeing my personal desires from the grip of the imagined order, I am just one person.

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Our reading
Imagined orders and writing filled the gaps left by our biological inheritance

Their wordsThese two inventions filled the gaps left by our biological inheritance.

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Our reading
Biology tolerates a very wide spectrum of possibilities; it is culture that forbids

Their wordsBiology is willing to tolerate a very wide spectrum of possibilities. It's culture that obliges people to realise some possibilities while forbidding others.

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Our reading
No social animal is ever guided by the interests of its entire species
Mental modelCollective action problems

Their wordsIn fact, no social animal is ever guided by the interests of the entire species to which it belongs.

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Our reading
Money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised

Their wordsmoney is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.

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Our reading
Empires fall but tend to leave rich and enduring legacies

Their wordsEmpires, too, ultimately fall, but they tend to leave behind rich and enduring legacies.

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Our reading
Religion's crucial historical role has been to give superhuman legitimacy to fragile imagined orders

Their wordsThe crucial historical role of religion has been to give superhuman legitimacy to these fragile structures.

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Our reading
Modern ideologies such as liberalism, communism and nationalism are religions, whatever they call themselves

Their wordsThese creeds do not like to be called religions, and refer to themselves as ideologies. But this is just a semantic exercise.

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Our reading
Religion is a system of human norms and values founded on belief in a superhuman order

Their wordsReligion is a system of human norms and values that is founded on belief in a superhuman order.

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Our reading
Humanism has split into rival sects fighting over the definition of humanity, as Christian sects fought over God

Their wordsHumanism has split into three rival sects that fight over the exact definition of 'humanity', just as rival Christian sects fought over the exact definition of God.

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Our reading
Theist religions sanctify the gods; humanist religions sanctify humanity

Their wordsTheist religions sanctify the gods. Humanist religions sanctify humanity, or more correctly, Homo sapiens.

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Our reading
The idea that all humans are equal is a revamped version of the monotheist belief that all souls are equal before God

Their wordsThe idea that all humans are equal is a revamped version of the monotheist conviction that all souls are equal before God.

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Our reading
Credit lets us build the present at the expense of the future, on the assumption that future resources will be more abundant

Their wordsCredit enables us to build the present at the expense of the future. It's founded on the assumption that our future resources are sure to be far more abundant than our present resources.

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Our reading
The history of capitalism cannot be understood without science

Their wordsConversely, the history of capitalism is unintelligible without taking science into account.

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Our reading
Capitalism cannot ensure that profits are gained or distributed fairly

Their wordsIt cannot ensure that profits are gained in a fair way, or distributed in a fair manner. On the contrary, the craving to increase profits and production blinds people to anything that might stand in the way.

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Our reading
Ecological degradation is not the same thing as resource scarcity

Their wordsEcological degradation is not the same as resource scarcity.

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Our reading
Markets and states now supply the tribal bonds that communities once did

Their wordsMarkets and states today provide most of the material needs once provided by communities, but they must also supply tribal bonds.

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Our reading
Empires have historically crushed rebellions with an iron fist and collapsed into bloodbaths

Their wordsThroughout history empires have crushed rebellions with an iron fist, and when its day came, a sinking empire used all its might to save itself, usually collapsing into a bloodbath.

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Our reading
When things improve, expectations balloon, so even dramatic improvements can leave us dissatisfied
Mental modelS-curves and diminishing returns

Their wordsWhen things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently even dramatic improvements in objective conditions can leave us dissatisfied.

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Our reading
If happiness rests on feeling that life is meaningful, being happier means deluding ourselves more effectively

Their wordsIf happiness is based on feeling that life is meaningful, then in order to be happier we need to delude ourselves more effectively.

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Our reading
Buddhism has given the question of happiness more importance than perhaps any other human creed

Their wordsBuddhism has assigned the question of happiness more importance than perhaps any other human creed.

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Our reading
The projects upgrading Homo sapiens are inseparable from the quest for immortality

Their wordsFor these projects are inextricably meshed together with the Gilgamesh Project.

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