Jared Diamond Quotes

• Much of human history has consisted of unequal conflicts between the haves and the have-nots.

  Jared Diamond

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• Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents for the last 13,000 years?

  Jared Diamond

• We’re uncomfortable about considering history as a science. It’s classified as a social science, which is considered not quite scientific.

  Jared Diamond

• We study the injustices of history for the same reason that we study genocide, and for the same reason that psychologists study the minds of murderers and rapists… to understand how those evil things came about.

  Jared Diamond

• 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

• Twenty years ago, you might have been pessimistic and said there’s no hope. But these days, some of our very biggest companies are acting remarkably cleanly. And in some cases, although not all cases, the CEOs are the driving forces behind that.

  Jared Diamond

• Thousands of years ago, humans domesticated every possible large wild mammal species fulfilling all those criteria and worth domesticating, with the result that there have been no valuable additions of domestic animals in recent times, despite the efforts of modern science.

  Jared Diamond

• 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

• The southward advance of native African farmers with Central African crops halted in Natal, beyond which Central African crops couldn’t grow – with enormous consequences for the recent history of South Africa.

  Jared Diamond

• 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

• 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.

  Jared Diamond

• The broadest pattern of history – namely, the differences between human societies on different continents – seems to me to be attributable to differences among continental environments, and not to biological differences among peoples themselves.

  Jared Diamond

• Technology causes problems as well as solves problems. Nobody has figured out a way to ensure that, as of tomorrow, technology won’t create problems. Technology simply means increased power, which is why we have the global problems we face today.

  Jared Diamond

• Tasmanian history is a study of human isolation unprecedented except in science fiction – namely, complete isolation from other humans for 10,000 years.

  Jared Diamond

• 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

• Starbucks goes to a great effort, and pays twice as much for its coffee as its competitors do, and is very careful to help coffee producers in developing countries grow coffee without pesticides and in ways that preserve forest structure.

  Jared Diamond

• 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

• No government is here forever. And there are other forces – the most potent force in our society, in fact, big business – doing good for the environment.

  Jared Diamond

• 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

• Measles and TB evolved from diseases of our cattle, influenza from a disease of pigs, and smallpox possibly from a disease of camels. The Americas had very few native domesticated animal species from which humans could acquire such diseases.

  Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond (38)

Birth:	10th September, 1937
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Professor, Scientist

About

Jared Mason Diamond was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is an American scientist and author. Originally trained in physiology, he is known for drawing from a variety of fields, including anthropology, ecology, geography and evolutionary biology. He originally specialized in salt absorption in the gall bladder. He earned a BA degree in anthropology and history from Harvard University in 1958. He earned his PhD on the physiology and biophysics of membranes in the gall bladder from Trinity College, University of Cambridge in 1961. He served as a professor of physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical School in 1968. He is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also teaches at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome. He won the National Medal of Science in 1999 and Westfield State University granted him an honorary doctorate in 2009. He has written several books include: The Third Chimpanzee, Guns, Germs, and Steel(Won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1998), Why Is Sex Fun?, Collapse, and The World Until Yesterday.

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Today's Anniversary - 21st November

Births

• 1870 - Alexander Berkman
• 1958 - Rickson Gracie
• 1953 - Tina Brown
• 1937 - Marlo Thomas
• 1962 - Steven Curtis Chapman

Deaths

• 1926 - Joseph McKenna
• 2000 - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke
• 1945 - Robert Benchley
• 1959 - Max Baer
• 1958 - Mel Ott