21 Lessons for the 21st Century

by Yuval Noah Harari

Global politics thus follows the Anna Karenina principle: successful states are all alike, but every failed state fails in its own way, by missing this or that ingredient of the dominant political package.

Since there is no national answer to the problem of global warming, some nationalist politicians prefer to believe the problem does not exist.

It takes a lot of courage to fight biases and oppressive regimes, but it takes even greater courage to admit ignorance and venture into the unknown.

Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.

“A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”

In fact, false stories have an intrinsic advantage over the truth when it comes to uniting people.

Silence isn’t neutrality; it is supporting the status quo.

In such a world, the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.

The meaning of life is thus a bit like playing with a live hand grenade. Once you pass it on to somebody else, you are safe.