Sam Harris Quotes

I believe psychology has done very well in working out how to understand and treat disease. But I think that is literally half-baked. If all you do is work to fix problems, to alleviate suffering, then by definition you are working to get people to zero, to neutral.

Nothing defines the quality of life in a community more clearly than people who regard themselves, or whom the consensus chooses to regard, as mentally unwell.

The poor get bored the same as the rest of us. Their happiness might be as important to them as their health.

I spend a fair bit of time in Los Angeles, and there is much I love about the place - the weather, the food, the beaches and the golf. And a few things I don't. Like the way an enormous number of mentally ill people seem to be forced to live on the streets with little or nothing in the way of government assistance.

There seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients.

It's my belief that, since the end of the Second World War, psychology has moved too far away from its original roots, which were to make the lives of all people more fulfilling and productive, and too much toward the important, but not all-important, area of curing mental illness.

But most Canadians have recognized to a greater or lesser extent that despite much of the so-called progress of the affluent society, essential ingredients to a meaningful life seem to be either entirely lacking, or at best, difficult to grasp.

People who are lonely and depressed are three to 10 times more likely to get sick and die prematurely than those who have a strong sense of love and community. I don't know any other single factor that affects our health - for better and for worse - to such a strong degree.

Everything in large doses is gonna kill you. Even happiness.

Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.

The more choices we give patients affected by depression, the better we will serve them.

The more people have, the less content they seem to be. In America, the cultural expectation that we're to be happy all the time and our children are to be happy all the time is toxic, and I think that really gets in the way of emotional well-being.

Medication can help us live a happier life.

I have known healthy, wealthy people who were depressed, and people with critical illnesses who could honestly attest to joy.

Richer people tend to be happier than poor people, and people in poor countries tend to be less happy than people in rich countries.

Man cannot maintain his morals when he has no ordinary means of living.

I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man.

Many a dormant moral issue is brought to life by economic pressure.

The jails and prisons are the new insane asylums. That’s what we are.

Cincinnati’s Problem: The Feeble Minded: The Hub to our Wheel of Vice, Crime and Pauperism.

We shouldn't measure everything in terms of GDP figures or economics. There is something called quality of life.

Not to be able to move around or do things without thinking - that's tough. I may end up that way, but if I do, I hope to hell my intellect will take over, and I'll find some kind of joy and a way to contribute.

In an increasingly complex world, we have a simple and bold vision that all children should have the opportunity to grow up healthy.

I don't like to see anyone suffer, and there's a very, very fine line between being healthy and working and totally down and out.

Mental health can improve overall well-being and prevent other illnesses. And since mental health problems have a serious economic impact on vulnerable communities, making them a priority can save lives and markedly improve people's quality of life.