Sam Harris
American neuroscientist, philosopher, and meditation teacher, one of the most influential voices on contemplative practice for the secular, scientifically-minded reader of the early twenty-first century. Born in 1967 in Los Angeles, he holds a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA and has trained in Theravada Vipassana, Tibetan Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta with teachers including Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Poonja-ji. His 2014 book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion and the meditation app of the same name have introduced contemplative practice — particularly the recognition of selflessness — to a generation of readers who would never enter a Buddhist monastery or a yoga studio. His earlier books, including The End of Faith and Free Will, established him as a public intellectual on consciousness, ethics, and the contemplative dimensions of human experience.
quotes in library
Quotes by Sam Harris
103 quotes“Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness.”
“How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience.”
“Mindfulness is a state of clear, nonjudgmental, and undistracted attention.”
“The selfless feeling is more available than most people realize.”
“There is no rope of self holding the thoughts together.”
“Consciousness is the one thing in the universe that cannot be an illusion.”
“To recognize the absence of the self is the goal of contemplative practice.”
“In ordinary consciousness, you are always identified with thought.”
“The realm of pure awareness is always available.”
“Investigate the feeling of being someone. The feeling has no center.”
“Look for the looker. The looker disappears.”
“What is awake is not a thing.”
“The deepest insights of contemplative practice are testable in your own experience.”
“There is no need to merely believe. The point is to look and see.”
“Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making.”
“You are not the author of the thoughts that arise in your mind.”
“The self is a mirage that appears in the play of mind.”
“Identity politics is a poison that corrupts most of what it touches.”
“There is no self that is the thinker of your thoughts. There is only thinking.”
Explore More Teachers
Discover wisdom from 500+ spiritual teachers across all traditions.
Browse All Teachers