# Quote — Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens

> Napoleon... [called the British] a nation of shopkeepers. Yet these shopkeepers defeated Napoleon... and their empire was the largest the world has ever seen.

- 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_16:_%22The_Capitalist_Creed%22) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/yuval-noah-harari/sapiens/napoleon-called-the

## 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)