Quotes by David Livingstone Smith

“I began to understand how we are built; were built to be natural-born liars. Nature has fashioned us like nature has fashioned so many organisms.”

“We tell blatant lies to one another. We tell blatant lies to our children.”

“Well, you know, people lead double lives. We all do to some degree. We keep certain things separate from other things. But the only way to really do that successfully for a period of time is to deceive oneself.”

“When in the public eye, its tough because its generating stress constantly, because deep down in your heart of hearts, you know theres a chance youre going to be caught.”

Rather than looking for explanations for why all people deserve to be treated with compassion and respect, we ought to be working at creating a world in which people are treated with compassion and respect. Human rights aren’t lying around waiting to be discovered. They’re made, not found.

Dehumanization isn’t a way of talking. It’s a way of thinking—a way of thinking that, sadly, comes all too easily to us. Dehumanization is a scourge, and has been so for millennia. It acts as a psychological lubricant, dissolving our inhibitions and inflaming our destructive passions. As such, it empowers us to perform acts that would, under other circumstances, be unthinkable.

“The more we learn about ourselves and our history, the more we are confronted with our extraordinarily violent character.”

“Science is a tool, and if we were an esentially kind and peaceful species, it would not occur to us to use this tool for destructive purposes.”

“We exploit science to make war because we are warlike creatures.”