158 quotes
Biologists have since debunked Nazi racial theory. In particular, genetic research conducted after 1945 has demonstrated that the differences between the various human lineages are far smaller than the Nazi postulated.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Mere observations, however, are not knowledge. In order to understand the universe, we need to connect observations into comprehensive theories. Earlier traditions usually formulated their theories in terms of stories. Modern science uses mathematics.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Germans believe in the existence of a German nation, get excited at the sight of German national symbols, retell German national myths, and are willing to sacrifice money, time and limbs for the German nation, Germany will remain one of the strongest powers of the world.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Scientists studying the inner workings of the human organism have found no soul there. They increasingly argue that human behaviour is determined by hormones, genes and synapses, rather than free will - the same forces that determine the behaviour of chimpanzees, wolves and ants.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
No other animal [Homo sapiens] had ever moved into such a huge variety of habitats so quickly.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
the Scientific Revolution might prove itself far greater than a mere historical revolution. It may turn out to be the most important bological revolution since the appearance of life on earth.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
There is nothing new about biological engineering per se. People have been using it for millennia...
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
scholars usually distinguish between 'sex', which is a biological category, and 'gender', a cultural category.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Planet Earth was separated into several ecosystems, each made up of a unique assembly of animals and plants. Homo sapiens was about to put an end to this biological exuberance.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
In laboratories throughout the world, scientists are engineering living beings. They break the laws of natural selection with impunity, unbridled even by an organism's original characteristics.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The sum total of money in the world is about $60 trillion, yet the sum total of coins and bank notes is less than $6 trillion. More than 90% percent of all money - more than $50 trillion appearing in our accounts - exists only on computer servers.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Scientists themselves are not always aware of the political, economic and religious interests that control the flow of money; many scientists do, in fact, act out of purely intellectual curiosity. Hovever, only rarely do scientists dictate the scientific agenda.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery that launched the Scientific Revolution was the discovery that humans do not know the answers to their most important questions.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
From the dawn of agriculture until this very day, billions of humans armed with branches, swatters, shoes and poison sprays have waged rentless wars against diligent ants, furtive roaches, adventurous spiders and misguided beetles that constantly infiltrate the human domicile.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Wars are not a pub brawl. ...[A]n aggressive brute is often the worst choice to run a war.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The annual sugar intake of the average Englishman rose from near zero in the early seventeenth century to around eight kilograms in the early nineteenth century.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Present-day Egyptians speak Arabic, think of themselves as Arabs, and identify... with the Arab Empire that conquered Egypt in the seventh century and crushed... repeated revolts...
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
This partial script was composed of ten signs, representing the numbers from 0 - 9. Confusingly, these signs were known as Arabic numerals even though they were first invented by the Hindus.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
According to the science of biology, people were not 'created'. They... evolved. And... not... to be 'equal'.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
The Scientific Revolution and modern imperialism were inseparable.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)