What can be nothing one moment and something the next, yet disappears in the presence of anything?

But it isn‘t absence that causes sorrow. It is affection and love. Without affection, without love, such absences would cause us no pain. For this reason, even the pain caused by absence is, in the end, something good and even beautiful, because it feeds on that which gives meaning to life.

Dignity was being democratized. But identity politics in liberal democracies began to reconverge with the collective and illiberal forms of identity such as nation and religion, since individuals frequently wanted not recognition of their individuality, but recognition of their sameness to other people.

We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine. For example, studying how Europeans came to dominate Africans enables us to realise that there is nothing natural or inevitable about the racial hierarchy, and that the world might well be arranged differently.

Christians and Muslims who could not agree on religious beliefs could nevertheless agree on a monetary belief, because whereas religion asks us to believe in something, money asks us to believe that other people believe in something.

“Biology enables, culture forbids”. Biology is willing to tolerate a very wide spectrum of possibilities. It‘s culture that obliges people to realise some possibilities while forbidding others. Biology enables women to have children - some cultures oblige women to realise this possibility. Biology enables men to enjoy sex with one another - some cultures forbid them to realise this possibility.

The most important impact of script on human history is precisely this: it has gradually changed the way humans think and view the world. Free association and holistic thought have given way to compartmentalisation and bureaucracy.

One of history‘s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally they reach a point where they can‘t live without it.

...a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than vice versa.

The human collective knows far more today than did the ancient bands. But at the individual level, ancient foragers were the most knowledgeable and skillful people in history.

The responsibility for raising a child is a communal effort shared with the larger “family” - it does take a village, and a town, and a region, and a country to create a culture for which everyone is responsible.

History has shown that it takes time for us to feel comfortable with the “other”, but also that, properly managed, that We and They can learn to embrace each other.

These different identities - whether global or more rooted - have been brought into conflict with one another in debates about identity, nationalism and yes, immigration before and after the Brexit vote. For decades this was in many ways a hidden discourse, as political and media circles seemed to refuse to engage it.

They (tourists) are a strange juxtaposition of the economic benefits that the “peace dividend” has brought alongside a reminder that the peace is fragile.

Many academics like to argue that nationalism is a “false construct” because it is based on “imagined communities”, but there is nothing false about people‘s feelings concerning their national identity, and “imagined” does not mean non-existent.

This book is all about critical thinking, based on facts and statistics - up to date facts and statistics - with an open and ready-to-be-corrected mind, capturing the reality as it is. This book tells us how our world has been improved more than what most of us think, but it‘s not the point of this book and we need to go further. This book is easy to read and I‘m glad that I read this book.

The goal of higher income is not just bigger piles of money. The goal of longer lives is not just extra time. The ultimate goal is to have the freedom to do what we want.

Step-by-step, year-by-year, the world is improving. Not on every single measure every single year, but as a rule. Though the world faces huge challenges, we have made tremendous progress.

The illusion that we understand the past fosters overconfidence in our ability to predict the future.

The world in our heads is not a precise replica of reality; our expectations about the frequency of events are distorted by the prevalence and emotional intensity of the messages to which we are exposed.

We are far willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.

The attributes ‘equal‘, ‘greater‘, and ‘less‘ are not applicable to infinite, but only to finite quantities.

In algebra the mind is first taught to consider general truths, truths which are not asserted to hold only of this or that particular thing, but of any one of a whole group of things. It is in the power of understanding and discovering such truths that the mastery of the intellect over the whole world of things actual and possible resides; and ability to deal with the general as such is one of the gifts that a mathematical education should bestow

We perceive the world of objects as essentially separate from the world of minds, making it possible for us to envision soulless bodies and bodiless souls.

Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed.

In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.

Like some other people mentioned, some chapters are more interesting than the others, and some chapters are just informative (without so much of arguments). But the author covers different aspects not only the « geographic » parts but cultural part for example, and I learned a lot (I like the Africa and the Middle East chapters); I enjoyed reading this book and I will try to read it again soon.

I am a foreigner living in Paris, I didn‘t speak French when I first arrived here. I totally agree with what he says about living in France as a foreign person and he explains it so well (even though it includes some stereotypes repeatedly said by other people already). His writing is funny and very easy to understand so it is also a good way to practice French-reading-skill.

I read this book when I was 10 and this is still one of my favorite books. This is a romantic comedy type of book rather than a children‘s book. I will try read the original book in English soon.

I enjoyed reading this book. Kaku talks about not only the scientific/physics part of our future-escaping-from-earth-possibilities but also how humans would need to entertain ourselves on the way to another planet for example, which, I think, makes his approach more « global » and « realistic » in a way. This is irrelevant to his field but I‘d love to know how he thinks about saving the planet with our technologies instead of escaping from it.