I've always been interested in a lot of things, and a lot of things at the same time, and I always tried to explain them to myself. I ask a lot of questions. Jared Diamond More Quotes by Jared Diamond More Quotes From Jared Diamond In the latter case it is often government that organizes the conquest, and religion that justifies it. Jared Diamond latter government religion Put another way, the chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans. Jared Diamond chimpanzees gorillas way Some people have much more pull than other people. But when I say that the public has ultimate responsibility, I'm not saying it in a moral sense. I'm just saying it in the sense of what is it that's really going to bring change. Jared Diamond moral responsibility people 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 optimistic writing past AIDS and malaria and TB are national security issues. A worldwide program to get a start on dealing with these issues would cost about $25 billion... It's, what, a few months in Iraq. Jared Diamond issues iraq cost All of our current environmental problems are unanticipated harmful consequences of our existing technology. There is no basis for believing that technology will miraculously stop causing new and unanticipated problems while it is solving the problems that it previously produced. Jared Diamond environmental technology believe Native Americans had only stone and wooden weapons and no animals that could be ridden. Those military advantages repeatedly enabled troops of a few dozen mounted Spaniards to defeat Indian armies numbering in the thousands. Jared Diamond army military native-american Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a bird capable, say, of catching insects in mid-air, with the result that birds of similar habitats tend to have very similar anatomies, whatever their ancestry. For example, American vultures look and behave much like Old World vultures, but biologists have come to realize that the former are related to storks, the latter to hawks, and that their resemblances result from their common lifestyle. Jared Diamond design air bird The rate of human invention is faster, and the rate of cultural loss is slower, in areas occupied by many competing societies with many individuals and in contact with societies elsewhere. Jared Diamond individual literature loss Lest those islands still seem to you too remote in space and time to be relevant to our modern societies, just think about the risks... of our increasing globalization and increasing worldwide economic interdependence. Jared Diamond space islands thinking Take air quality in the United States today: It's about 30 percent better than it was 25 years ago, even though there are now more people driving more cars. Jared Diamond air people years The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we're coming to the end of world resources. Jared Diamond land water long We know from our recent history that English did not come to replace U.S. Indian languages merely because English sounded musical to Indians' ears. Instead, the replacement entailed English-speaking immigrants' killing most Indians by war, murder, and introduced diseases, and the surviving Indians' being pressured into adopting English, the new majority language. Jared Diamond majority musical war I'd rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun. Jared Diamond literature fun people We can't manipulate some stars while maintaining other stars as controls; we can't start and stop ice ages, and we can't experiment with designing and evolving dinosaurs. Jared Diamond ice design stars Today Charles Darwin is best known for establishing the fact of evolution and for recognizing the major role of natural selection in driving it. Jared Diamond roles today facts Think of all the human suffering caused by the sad truth that beautiful sexy women or handsome Porsche-owning men often prove to have miserable genes for other traits Jared Diamond sexy beautiful love In parts of Montana, salt concentrations in soil water, have reached those double those of seawater. Jared Diamond montana environmental water One way to explain the complexity and unpredictability of historical systems, despite their ultimate determinacy, is to note that long chains of causation may separate final effects from ultimate causes lying outside the domain of that field of science. Jared Diamond historical long lying When you have seen the errors in which you live, you will understand the good that we have done you by coming to your land by order of his Majesty the King of Spain. Our Lord permitted that your pride should be brought low and that no Indian should be able to offend a Christian. Jared Diamond pride kings christian
