Thor Heyerdahl Professions : Ethnographer Born : October 6, 1914 Died : April 18, 2002 Browse All Authors Top 32 quotes by Thor Heyerdahl Borders I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people. Thor Heyerdahl adventure inspirational travel One learns more from listening than speaking.And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature still have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls. Thor Heyerdahl wall wind people In my experience, it is rarer to find a really happy person in a circle of millionaires than among vagabonds. Thor Heyerdahl millionaire vagabonds circles Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity. Thor Heyerdahl simple men civilization It is progress when a centuries-old oak is cut down to give space for a road sign. Thor Heyerdahl cutting space giving Am going to cross Pacific on a wooden raft to support a theory that the South Sea islands were peopled from Peru. Will you come? I guarantee nothing but a free trip to Peru and the South Sea islands and back, but you will find good use for your technical abilities on the voyage. Reply at once.' Next day the following telegram arrived from Torstein: COMING. TORSTEIN. Thor Heyerdahl next-day sea islands I also believe that when one dies, one may wake up to the reality that proves that time does not exist. Thor Heyerdahl doe believe reality Civilization grew in the beginning from the minute that we had communication - particularly communication by sea that enabled people to get inspiration and ideas from each other and to exchange basic raw materials. Thor Heyerdahl communication inspiration sea Any scientist can testify that a dead ocean means a dead planet .... No national law, no national precautions can save the planet. The ocean, more than any other part of our planet, ... is a classic example of the absolute need for international global action. Thor Heyerdahl ocean law mean For every minute, the future is becoming the past. Thor Heyerdahl minutes becoming past Land! An island! We devoured it greedily with our eyes and woke the others, who tumbled out drowsily and stared in all directions as if they thought our bow was about to run on to a beach. Screaming seabirds formed a bridge across the sky in the direction of the distant island, which stood out sharper against the horizon as the red background widened and turned gold with the approach of the sun and the full daylight. Thor Heyerdahl eye running beach It is also rarer to find happiness in a man surrounded by the miracles of technology than among people living in the desert of the jungle and who by the standards set by our society would be considered destitute and out of touch. Thor Heyerdahl standards-set technology men In fighting nature, man can win every battle except the last. If he should win that too, he will perish, like an embryo cutting its own umbilical cord. Thor Heyerdahl cutting fighting winning It is progress when weapons are improved to kill more people at a longer range. Thor Heyerdahl progress weapons people Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilized and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Thor Heyerdahl airplane government military We must wake up to the insane reality of our time. We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned. Thor Heyerdahl axes reality people This world has seen a great many civilizations. And many of them have survived for longer periods than ours up to the present. They were all as sure as we are today of having founded the first eternal civilization. We today differ from them in having our western civilization spread to embrace the entire planet, leaving no room on any continent for any other culture to take over if we fail. Thor Heyerdahl other-cultures leaving civilization A civilized nation can have no enemies, and one cannot draw a line across a map, a line that doesn't even exist in nature and say that the ugly enemy lives on the one side, and good friends live on the other. Thor Heyerdahl good-friend best-friend enemy Circumstances cause us to act the way we do. We should always bear this in mind before judging the actions of others. I realized this from the start during World War II. Thor Heyerdahl judging mind war Once in a while you find yourself in an odd situation. You get into it by degrees and in the most natural way but, when you are right in the midst of it, you are suddenly astonished and ask yourself how in the world it all came about. Thor Heyerdahl finding-yourself inspirational funny Similar Authors Raphael Patai ethnographer All Authors
