The best way to live in this real world is to free ourselves of demons and tribal gods.

Edward O. Wilson
About This Quote

The best way to live in this real world is to free ourselves of demons and tribal gods. The idea is that tribal gods are imaginary beings that people seek comfort in when they are frightened. It’s the survival instinct. It’s how we survive when everything around us seems to be falling apart.

These imaginary beings are anything that gives us comfort, whether it's media, religion, or politics. The problem is that these things can become our gods if we treat them as such. One way around this is to start using our brains instead of our hearts.

We can do this without abandoning our communities or losing touch with our friends. We all know people who have stopped watching TV because they realized it wasn't doing them any good, but it's hard to turn off our hearts completely.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss
  2. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott
  3. I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. <span style="margin:15px;... - Neil Gaiman
  4. We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really love us, the people who really matter. Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits of people to love us, people that don't even matter, while all that... - C. Joybell C.
  5. Nothing in this world was more difficult than love. - Unknown
More Quotes By Edward O. Wilson
  1. There is no better high than discovery.
  2. People would rather believe than know.
  3. I will argue that every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished, and never to be surrendered without a struggle.
  4. Science, its imperfections notwithstanding, is the sword in the stone that humanity finally pulled. The question it poses, of universal and orderly materialism, is the most important that can be asked in philosophy and religion.
  5. Humanity is a biological species, living in a biological environment, because like all species, we are exquisitely adapted in everything: from our behavior, to our genetics, to our physiology, to that particular environment in which we live. The earth is our home. Unless we preserve...
Related Topics