Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

The pursuit of an easier life led to a life full of hardships, and this did not happen for the last time.

One of the few iron laws of history is that luxury goods tend to become necessities and create new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted.

The imaginary order shapes our desires. Most people do not want to accept that the order governing their lives is imaginary, but in fact, each person is born into a preexisting imaginary order, and their desires are shaped from birth by its dominant myths.

There is no escape from the imaginary order. When we tear down the walls of our prison and run towards freedom, we are actually running into the larger courtyard of a bigger prison.

(...) Suffering arises from desire; the only way to completely free yourself from suffering is to completely free yourself from desire; and the only way to free yourself from desire is to train your mind to experience reality as it is.