“A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.”

Source: Free Will

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings." by Sam Harris?
Sam Harris photo
Sam Harris 151
American author, philosopher and neuroscientist 1967

Related quotes

Sam Harris photo

“From my point of view, compatibilism is a little like saying: a puppet is free so long as it loves its strings.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris at Sydney Opera House Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012, Discussion on Free Will http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3raA1EwrI.
2010s

Alan Moore photo

“We’re all puppets, Laurie. I’m just a puppet who can see the strings.”

Source: Doctor Manhattan, in Watchmen #9 (referring to Doctor Manhattans's theory of time)

“It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”

Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) Social psychologist

As quoted in The Social Dimensions Of Law And Justice In Contemporary India (1979) by V. R. Krishna Iyer
Context: It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation. The fact that obedience is often a necessity in human society does not diminish our responsibility as citizens. Rather, it confers on us a special obligation to place in positions of authority those most likely to use it humanely. And people are inventive. The variety of political forms we have seen in history are only several of many possible political arrangements. Perhaps the next step is to invent and to explore political forms that will give conscience a better chance to resist errant authority.

Georg Büchner photo

“We are only puppets, our strings are being pulled by unknown forces.”

Act II.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

Quoted in Somerset Maugham (1980) by Ted Morgan

Tom Robbins photo

“My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.”

Bernard to Leigh-Cheri, in Phase III, Ch. 46
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
Context: Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words “make” and “stay” become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.

Everett Dean Martin photo

“Propaganda is making puppets out of us. We are moved by hidden strings which the propagandist manipulates.”

Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941)

Source: Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929), p. 142

Jim Henson photo
Barry Lyga photo
Arthur Koestler photo

“A puppet of the Gods is a tragic figure, a puppet suspended on his chromosomes is merely grotesque.”

Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-British author and journalist

Epilogue
The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959)
Context: The uomo universale of the Renaissance, who was artist and craftsman, philosopher and inventor, humanist and scientist, astronomer and monk, all in one, split up into his component parts. Art lost its mythical, science its mystical inspiration; man became again deaf to the harmony of the spheres. The Philosophy of Nature became ethically neutral, and "blind" became the favourite adjective for the working of natural law. The space-spirit hierarchy was replaced by the space-time continuum.... man's destiny was no longer determined from "above" by a super-human wisdom and will, but from "below" by the sub-human agencies of glands, genes, atoms, or waves of probability.... they could determine his fate, but could provide him with no moral guidance, no values and meaning. A puppet of the Gods is a tragic figure, a puppet suspended on his chromosomes is merely grotesque.

Related topics