# Quote — Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens

> Ancient scribes learned not merely to read and write, but also to use catalogues, dictionaries, calendars, forms and tables. They studied the internalised technique of cataloguing, retrieving and processing information very different from those used by the brain.

- Author: [Yuval Noah Harari](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari.md)
- Book: [Sapiens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari#Chapter_7:_%22Memory_Overloaded%22) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/ancient-scribes-learned

## More from this book

> [P]erhaps happiness is synchronising... personal delusions.. with... prevailing collective delusions.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/p-erhaps-happiness-is-synchronising.md)

> We have... increased food production, built cities, established empires and created... trade networks. But did we decrease... suffering..? ...[M]assive increases in human power did not necessarily improve the well-being of individual Sapiens, and usually caused immense misery to other animals.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/we-have-increased.md)

> [C]ontradictions are culture’s engines, responsible for... creativity and dynamism... Just as... clashing musical notes... force... music forward.., discord in... thoughts, ideas and values compel us to think, reevaluate and criticise. Consistency is the playground of dull minds.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/c-ontradictions-are-cultures.md)