Famous Quotes

"Introspection and preserved writings give us far more insight into the ways of past humans than we have into the ways of past dinosaurs. For that reason, I'm optimistic that we can eventually arrive at convincing explanations for these broadest patterns of human history."

Jared Diamond on History

More quotes about History

• "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

  Confucius on History

• "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

  Abraham Lincoln on History

• "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

  Mahatma Gandhi on History

• "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

  Franklin D. Roosevelt on History

• "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."

  Thomas Jefferson on History

More quotes by Jared Diamond

• "I've worked very hard in this book to keep the lines of communication open. I don't want to turn someone away from this information for partisan political reasons."

• "I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was in the 10 years of the MacArthur grant that I began working on my first book... and I began putting more work into environmental history."

• "Federal elections happen every two years in this country. Presidential elections every four years. And four years just isn't long enough to dismantle all the environmental laws we've got in this country."

• "The main thing that gives me hope is the media. We have radio, TV, magazines, and books, so we have the possibility of learning from societies that are remote from us, like Somalia. We turn on the TV and see what blew up in Iraq or we see conditions in Afghanistan."

• "Biology is the science. Evolution is the concept that makes biology unique."