Tag: philosophy

Review and Quotes from Richard Dawkins' The Selfish

Notes and Quotes from Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is one of the most important science books of the 20th century. When I read it in 2024, I wished that I had read it earlier. I opened the book looking for the origins of the concept of the meme, but I got much more than what I hoped to get. Not only did I learn about the meme (and that we’re gene machines), but I also learned to play the game of life a little better. (Trust me when I say that you’ll even gain an understanding of dating strategies and tactics by reading this book.) Most of all, I was happy to discover that, scientifically (or statistically) speaking, nice guys can finish first. And that’s good news, isn’t it?

Here are some of my favorite quotes from The Selfish Gene:

We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

The only kind of entity that has to exist in order for life to arise, anywhere in the universe, is the immortal replicator.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

… even with selfish genes at the helm, nice guys can finish first.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

When we die there are two things we can leave behind us: genes and memes.

– Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature” (1836)

A man is fed, not that he may be fed, but that he may work.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

All the facts in natural history taken by themselves, have no value, but are barren like a single sex. But marry it to human history, and it is full of life.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate — debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be forgone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

Every universal truth which we express in words, implies or supposes every other truth.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

The true philosopher and the true poet are one, and a beauty, which is truth, and a truth, which is beauty, is the aim of both.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

To the wise, therefore, a fact is true poetry, and the most beautiful of fables.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)

Know then, that the world exists for you.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836)
Book Review and Quotes from Nick Land's The Dark Enlightenment

Five Quotes from Nick Land’s The Dark Enlightenment

Chris KhatschLeave a comment

When I read Nick Land’s The Dark Enlightenment for the first time, I was not impressed by it at all. In fact, I was so disappointed that I commented on it on social media. I wrote, “I expected this book to be more than what it turned out to be. I was expecting the Nietzsche of the 21st century; I got a Hobbesian net surfer instead. Nick Land’s The Dark Enlightenment is the tea time chatter of a person you really don’t want to hang out with. Thankfully, the book is less than 100 pages. The only purpose this book can really serve is as a light commentary on Menius Moldbug’s (Curtis Yarvin’s) blog posts.”

That’s what I said then. So, if it’s so bad, why am I reading it again? Well… There is something so right about it, you see, but I don’t know what it is. (Of course, I do not agree and don’t have to agree with his politics to admire his texts, even if it’s a political text.) The Dark Enlightenment just has this magnetic power that pulls you, makes you want to chew the cud, and — what?

Quote from The Dark Enlightenment

Since winning elections is overwhelmingly a matter of vote buying, and society’s informational organs (education and media) are no more resistant to bribery than the electorate, a thrifty politician is simply an incompetent politician, and the democratic variant of Darwinism quickly eliminates such misfits from the gene pool.

– Nick Land, The Dark Enlightenment

Anarcho-capitalist utopias can never condense out of science fiction, divided powers flow back together like a shattered Terminator, and constitutions have exactly as much real authority as a sovereign interpretative power allows them to have.

– Nick Land, The Dark Enlightenment

Democracy consumes progress.

– Nick Land, The Dark Enlightenment

The left thrives on dialectics, the right perishes through them.

– Nick Land, The Dark Enlightenment

When only tolerance is tolerable, and everyone (who matters) accepts this manifestly nonsensical formula as not only rationally intelligible, but as the universally-affirmed principle of modern democratic faith, nothing except politics remains.

– Nick Land, The Dark Enlightenment