Sam Harris, Interview with The Minimalists (19 August 2014)
2010s
As quoted in Hope Notes : 52 Meditations to Nudge Your World (2004) by Wayne Willis, p. 11.
“You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you.”
Source: Veronika Decides to Die (1998)
“Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all be pure”
“Are you out of your mind? No, you have to be in possession of a mind, first, to be out of it.”
Source: The House that Jack Built (2001), Chapter 4 (p. 85)
From Yoshikazu Nakayama's biography of Miki, My Oyasama, vol. 2, p. 40–1.
My Oyasama
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Interview in Penthouse (June 1983)
Context: I don't think that anyone should think for you. And that's exactly what cults do. All cults, including Scientology, say, "I am your mind, I am your brain. I've done all the work for you, I've laid the path open for you. All you have to do is turn your mind off and walk down the path I have created." Well, I have learned that there's great strength in diversity, that a clamorous discussion or debate is very healthy and should be encouraged. That's why I like our political setup in the United States: simply because you can fight and argue and jump up and down and shout and scream and have all kinds of viewpoints, regardless of how wrongheaded or ridiculous they might be. People here don't have to give up their right to perceive things the way they believe. Scientology and all the other cults are one-dimensional, and we live in a three-dimensional world. Cults are as dangerous as drugs. They commit the highest crime: the rape of the soul.
“If your appearance is all people see, they have no respect for your mind.”
Source: The Magician's Apprentice
